


Magic Me Some Love

by KaSaPe



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (not really though they deserve the happiness), Alternate Universe, Angst, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Galra Keith (Voltron), Happy Ending, I'm Sorry, M/M, POV Alternating, Panic Attacks, Water Magician Lance, it's so cliché it almost hurts, like the cheesiest happy ending ever omg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-21 22:04:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 143,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8262017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaSaPe/pseuds/KaSaPe
Summary: When Shiro's arm gets cut off while he is trying to protect Keith, Keith doesn't see any way to save his life but to break into the Galra's castle and steal some of their magical medicine. But nothing goes as planned and when he exits the castle empty handed he is cursed to look like a Galra until he accepts his "halfbreed" status. He is convinced that he has condemned Shiro to death - and then he learns of a magician that might be able to help just in time.Meanwhile Lance didn't expect a Galra to turn up at his door, demanding him to save his half dead (human?!) friend. And he certainly didn't expect to fall in love with him either.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Oh yeah I'll create a medieval fantasy with cool magic and Galra  
> Also me: They will all talk like teenagers from the 21 century
> 
> Let me know if I should up the rating because of Shiro's injury or anything else that happens later!  
> //written after season 1, so there might be some stuff that... doesn't seem quite right.....

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith tries to save Shiro.

Keith had known that this had been a bad idea.

But had he had a choice? No! Shiro was _dying!_

Tightening his grip around the container with the yellow liquid, he tried his best to appear as intimidating as possible. He wished he had thought about bringing some kind of bag that he could store the medicine in but he had been in a rush. Shiro was dying, _he could be dying at this very moment_ , every second counted - and yet here he was, staying as still as possible and trying to inconspicuously hide the medicine behind his back.

The witch in front of him laughed.

“Well, well, would you look at that. Who would have expected the half breed to come to us out of his own accord? Are you growing tired of staying with the humans, always pretending to nice and innocent, slandering a part of your personality just to live from day to day? Don’t you feel out of place with them?”

Keith knew he shouldn’t raise to the bait, he really did. But he had never been good at doing what was right. 

“Fuck you,” he bit out. The witch just laughed again.

“What, are you still in denial? But I can see the fire in you, young boy, I can see it flickering in your eyes, I know you won’t be able to resist for much longer.”

“You know nothing about me!” He didn’t have to listen to this. He didn’t have _time_ to listen to this. Shiro-

“Oh? But I think I do. Tell me, what are you hiding behind your back, hm?”

Keith could feel his blood freezing in his veins. His heart stopped beating for a moment; it was all over. He had been found out. There was no way he could get out of this alive.

But if he didn’t, then Shiro would _die_.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said calmly, tucking the container into his waistband. He was buying time and they both knew it. Slowly he pulled his knife out of its socket.

The smile fell from the old woman’s face. “Don’t play dumb with me, kid. I know you stole some of our magic. It’s because of your friend, hm? He’s dying, right?”

“Shut up! Shiro will not die!” He shouldn’t be doing this, he really shouldn’t be doing this- “I will take this medicine to him and he will be fine!”

_“I don’t think you will.”_

Keith whirled around, trying to face the voice that had suddenly spoken from behind. But when he turned around there was nothing left but black smoke - where did she go, _where did she go,_ she couldn’t have disappeared-

Except she could because she was a magician and he was nothing but a half human monster.

The laughter was back. “That’s right, that’s right, you are but a monster. Accept it, accept that part of yours-”

“Never!”

“Accept it and come to our side, boy. This is your home, this is where-”

“Shut up! I am not listening to you! I’ll bring this medicine to Shiro and everything will turn out fine!”

“-this is where your father is, Keith. This is where we will accept the part in you that you have to hide, the part that constantly screams at you to take up a weapon, to fight, to kill-”

_“Shut up!”_

“-to torture, to have people at your feet begging you for mercy. To avenge all the wrong that has been done to you. We welcome you, Keith.”

Keith couldn’t take it anymore. There were ten, twenty, then hundreds of that Galra magician around him, talking to him, talking right into his brain, talking about the things that made him the most vulnerable. He was a monster, yes, but he wasn’t- he wouldn’t-

More laughter. “But you would, Keith, wouldn’t you? You are a selfish guy, just like we are. Imagine the cure for your companions illness was right in the heart of a young girl-” Suddenly another witch appeared before him with a child in her arms. It was maybe 4 years old, crying and terrified. “-would you kill her? Would you kill her to save your companion?”

Keith gasped and pressed his hands to his head and hunched over. It was too much. Too much. All of this was too much. What was going on? He couldn’t take this any longer. “Stop, stop, don’t- I wouldn’t-”

“But you would, wouldn’t you? You would stop at nothing to save your friend, not even killing innocents.” Keith felt the air change around him and looked up again.

It wasn’t the woman holding the child anymore.

It was him.

Terror spread through his body, locking his joints together as he watched himself stabbing the girl, laughing as blood splattered over his clothes and face. The child wasn’t crying any longer, her eyes were cold and lifeless, she hung limply in his arms and he-

_“Stop!”_ he screamed, willing his legs to move again. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes, this wasn’t him, he would never do this, he wasn’t a monster, _he wasn’t like that-_

The moment he reached for the child both the girl and his double disappeared. In their place was nothing but black smoke, swirling in confusing patterns, making his vision even blurrier than it was before. He was breathing heavily and his still extended arms were shaking - and they were turning darker, darker, until his skin was more purple than white.

Laughter.

“See? Even your own body knows it. You are a Galra, Keith, you are not human. Accept it and join us.”

Keith stared down onto his skin, horrified. He hated it. He hated this color more than anything else, it was the reason he didn’t have any friends, the reason he could never know his father, the reason Shiro almost died.

“No,” he whispered, barely audible.

“But Keith, this is what you are.” There was a touch on his shoulder and he whipped around, preparing to lunge at whoever was standing there.

But it was the illusion of the child, concerned and reaching out for his face, as if it wanted to comfort him. Keith violently jerked back and almost lost his balance over it. The moment he regained it, he saw the mistake he made - his Galra self was there. It was approaching the girl from behind, grinning devilishly, dagger in his hand. Keith screamed, trying to reach the child before it was too late, before he would see her dying again, before he would see himself becoming a murderer again-

He was too late.

She didn’t scream but her mouth was opened and it was as if Keith could hear her voice anyway.

_“This is what you are.”_

Keith was vaguely aware that he was crying now but it didn’t matter much. He couldn’t feel his face anymore, everything was cold and frozen. “It’s not, it’s not, I’m not like that! I am not like that! I am not- I’m not like that-”

_“Join us and you won’t ever have to deny this part of yourself.”_

“Stop! I don’t want this! _I will never be like you!”_

There was a beat of silence and then all the darkness fell away abruptly. Terrified beyond measure Keith lifted his head again, only to be met with two piercing yellow eyes barely a finger width apart from his. He tried moving away, back, back, back, out of here, but it was as if some kind of magic held him in place.

Then the woman spoke.

“You are a powerful one, young boy. You could do great things if you just accepted that part of yourself that yearns for death and despair.”

“No,” Keith whispered.

“You are a powerful one, which is the only reason we are coming after you all this time… but fear not, not even the most powerful and stubborn one can resist this for long.”

When the woman stepped back and began chanting in a language that Keith didn’t understand, he was fully prepared to face death or torture. But despite the woman looking as if she was using every last bit of magical strength within her, Keith couldn’t feel anything. Nothing at all. There was static in the air from all the highly charged magic around them but _he didn’t feel anything._

Never in his life had Keith been this scared.

He could feel the chant nearing it’s completion, the atmosphere in the room shifting just so and now there was something, something pressing onto his skin-

“You will not return to looking human unless you accept who you really are,” the woman spoke in a deep voice. She didn’t sound like herself anymore, it was almost as if Keith was speaking to the magic itself and its words were absolute.

Its words were absolute.

Keith was a Galra.

Then there was wind, a sudden weight pressing down onto his shoulders, nearly forcing him to faceplant to the floor and a light so bright that Keith had to close his eyes. When it was over, he felt the woman taking the medicine from his waistband while he could do nothing but kneel and listen.

“You will not return to looking human unless you accept who you really are. And once you did we will be here, waiting for you to return to us out of your own free will. Not even the most powerful ones can resist the temptation of a place to belong.”

And then she was gone and so was the pressure holding him in place. Keith almost collapsed but he couldn’t, not yet, he had to get to Shiro.

_Shiro_.

He didn’t have the medicine any longer.

_Shiro could be dead by now._

Fear enveloped Keith’s heart as he got back onto his feet and ran towards the exit. He didn’t waste even a second wondering why none of the Galra tried to hold him back, they were simply obstacles that he couldn’t afford to run against. He had to get to Shiro, fast, before it was too late. Before… before Shiro took his last breath without anyone by his side.

Keith let out a frustrated scream, barely even noticing how inhuman it sounded. He wasn’t human anymore, not really. But then again, had he ever been? Would he really have killed that child to save Shiro?

Tears were beginning to obscure his vision once again but Keith didn't pay them any mind. It didn’t matter now. None of it mattered if Shiro was already dead by the time he arrived. He pushed himself to run even faster, way past the limit of what human legs could take and way faster than he had ever seen any _Galra_ move but it wasn’t enough. Not fast enough. Not fast enough if Shiro could be dying right now, _right this second_ , without anyone by his side…

Keith forced a sob back and kept going. It wasn’t far now: they lived together in a tiny shack in the forest far away from other humans. Or Galra. It was Keith’s fault that they had to live like this. His fault that Shiro had to live in a tiny shack, his fault that Shiro had to cut off contact to his other friends, his fault that he was now _dying_. He almost couldn’t bear the weight of the guilt lasting on his shoulders.

And then, finally, he was there. His tears dried the moment he saw their home, tiny and unsuspecting in the middle of nowhere. A weird mix of relief and fear washed over him when he saw that it was just as he had left it. 

Not even giving himself a moment to calm his erratic breath, Keith threw the door open. 

“Shiro?!” 

“Keith! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

And there Shiro was, half delirious but still present enough to speak clearly, lying bed and pressing the blanket to where his right arm should have been. The cloth that Keith had attached to the wound already thrown aside, soaked with blood and pus. There was so much blood…

“Fuck. Fuck, Shiro you are-”

“Calm down Keith, it’s fine. You are turning Galra again.”

A choked laugh broke through Keith’s teeth. It was just so like Shiro to still worry about him while he was literally bleeding out, _on the verge of death-_

There were new tears gathering at his eyes as he came closer to inspect the wound with shaking fingers. Shiro let him peel the blanket away despite the blatantly obvious pain on his face. For a moment there were so many tears that Keith wasn’t able to see anything but red and white blotches, swimming together like ink and water, the same way the black smoke had curled in on itself, before they were spilling over and allowed him to take in what he saw.

He almost wished they hadn’t.

The wound looked, if possible, even worse than before Keith had left.

Cursing loudly Keith pressed a clean part of the blanket against it. Shiro couldn’t quite suppress his pained noise and Keith instantly felt guilty. 

“Sorry Shiro, but you’ve got to press hard, okay? I’ll go again, I’ll get the medicine this time-”

“Keith,” Shiro interrupted him “where were you?”

Keith didn’t answer him. If he answered he knew that Shiro would scold him - but he hadn’t had a choice! None of the human medicines were even close to strong enough to heal him!

“Tell me you didn’t go to the Galra, Keith.”

Once again Keith didn’t reply, he simply filled up a glass of water and pressed it to Shiro’s lips. He had lost a lot of blood, a lot of liquid, so he had to take it all in again.

Shiro managed to drink half the glass before he turned his head away and looked Keith in the eyes. “Tell me you didn’t do that.”

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t lie to Shiro.

Keith turned away.

“Keith, going straight to the Galra is suicide! I told you before that you couldn’t go there! They are the reason we are out here in the first place-”

“You were going to die, Shiro!” Keith shouted. For a few moments nothing but the faint cackling of the fireplace filled the silence in the shack. “You were going to die and- you _are_ going to die and- and I can’t- fuck, I can’t do this Shiro, you can’t leave me.”

Shiro made a pained noise. “I wasn’t exactly _planning_ on leaving y-”

“Then don’t! Wait for me to come back, I promise that I’ll bring the medicine this time-”

“Keith!”

“They won’t catch me again, I’ll get the medicine and bring it here, you won’t have to die-”

“They caught you?! Keith-”

“You can’t stop me! I will - I will go back right now and I’ll find your stuff and you can scream at me later-”

“Keith, for the last time, I won’t allow you to-”

_“And I won’t allow you to die!”_ Keith hadn’t even realized that he had still held the pot of water in his hands until it exploded. He could feel the brown shards of clay tearing his skin apart but at the moment he couldn’t care less about it.

_“You are everything I have left, Shiro! You will not die!”_

Keith stood in the middle of the shack, feeling the blood from his hand drip to the floor as Shiro watched him with pained eyes. His sight was blurry again but he didn’t bother to brush the tears away. It was important that he got his point across, Shiro _had_ to know how important he was.

Slowly and raggedly Shiro exhaled. “You know,” he whispered, making Keith unconsciously come closer to not miss anything, “I don’t think we have a much of a choice about that anymore.”

Keith reared back as if he had been slapped. He stared at Shiro, kind, loving Shiro, the only almost family he had left, the only friend he had left, who had just spoken about his death as if it was inevitable. It couldn’t… no. It wouldn’t be true. Keith wouldn’t let it be true.

Without another word Keith turned towards the door, fully prepared to march back to the Galra’s castle and steal another magical medicine container. Shiro couldn’t stop him, he wasn’t even strong enough to stand anymore.

“Keith! Even if you leave now you won’t be back in time!”

Once again Keith froze, feeling fear taking over his body. He could feel the bile rising to his throat, he couldn’t allow Shiro to die, no, if he ran as fast as possible, he could still-

“I’m in my Galra from right now. I am way faster than usual,” Keith answered quietly. So why wouldn’t his legs move? He needed to hurry, every second he stayed here was another second wasted-

But what if he returned to a dead body?

“Even so…” Keith could hear a pained intake of breath. Alarmed, he turned around to see Shiro trying to sit up. 

“Stay still! You can’t- you are not strong enough to- you have to save your strength-” Keith’s hands were trembling as he pushed Shiro back down again.

“Don’t do it Keith.” The words were barely more than a breath.

“I have to! How often do I have to say that I won’t let you die?!”

Shiro’s only response was another pained noise.

“I don’t care what you are saying! I will walk right back into there, I will walk into my own death if I can save you-”

“Keith, _don’t!”_

“I will fight every single Galra with a stick if I have to _but I will not let you die!”_

Shiro’s face was one of pure agony before he finally sighed and weakly gestured towards the table. “Understood.”

“You… understand? You’ll let me leave?” Keith had a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe Shiro understood the situation he was in and would allow him to go with his blessings. Even if Shiro and he himself died he would still be able to say that they parted on good terms.

But Shiro shook his head.

“There is… someone else.”

“Someone else?” Keith turned around to look at the table, but he saw were lots of old maps, knives and some old bread. 

Shiro nodded again, weaker this time. “Map?”

Keith refused to give him what he wanted. “Are you trying to say that there is someone else out there that could help you? _That could have helped you all this time?!”_

“Not the time, Keith,” Shiro reminded him. His breathing was getting laboured again and Keith could see his eyes glazing over. The fever was taking him down again.

Cursing under his breath, Keith hurried to the table and dug out a detailed map of the city. He held it up but Shiro clearly wasn’t able to read it from the bed anymore, so he described the map quickly. A negative hum was his reply.

“Shit, which map do you need, Shiro? The market place? The outskirts? The forest?” Each question was followed by a negative tone.

“Oh god, come on! The palace?! The river? The sea?”

Finally he got a positive response. 

“The sea? It’s by the sea?!” The sea was just as far away from the forest as the Galra’s castle was. If Shiro thought that he wouldn’t be alive by the time Keith made it to the castle and back there was no way he would still be alive when he had to go all the way to the sea and back!

“Fuck, Shiro, the sea is too far away!” he exclaimed. Tears were threatening to overtake his vision _again_ but this time he blinked them away. He had to try it, at least.

Acting quick, he grabbed the map and held it right in front of Shiro’s face. Shiro visibly strained his eyes to make out words, before pointing at a place southeast from their little shack, right at the shore of the sea. “Take me to Lance,” he whispered.

Keith stared at him.

“You want me to… to carry you like this?!”

A weak hum was his reply.

“Shiro! Are you insane?! You are unstable, the way there will take all night, you are heavy-”

“-and you- Galra, aren’t you? Strong.” Shiro’s eyes fluttered closed. Keith panicked. 

“Alright, alright, I get it, I’ll carry you there, just don’t fall asleep yet, okay?! We have a long way to go, don’t you dare die in my arms!”

Shiro let out a choked laugh but didn’t open his eyes again. 

“Fuck. Fuck. _Fuck!_ Shiro, are you still there?!” 

A weak groan answered him. 

Alright, he could do this. No problem. He would carry Shiro all the way to the sea and would make sure he didn’t bleed out on his way there. He could do this.

He wouldn’t let Shiro die.

“Sorry, this will kind of hurt,” he mumbled as he rolled Shiro over to his good side before taking the blanket from his wound. Shiro didn’t say anything, didn’t even react. Every second he wasted was a second that brought Shiro closer to death so Keith didn’t hesitate to rip the blanket into huge stripes that he could use to fully bandage Shiro’s arm. 

Not-arm. 

He didn’t want to think about it.

Keith forced Shiro to sit up and let him lean against his upper body while he pressed half of the make-shift bandages to the open wound. There was a weak noise of protest and Shiro tried to move away from the pressure but Keith didn’t let him. Instead he used the other stripes to secure the mess, before immediately kneeling in front of him and hoisting him onto his back. 

“Shiro? You still there?”

Nothing.

But Keith could feel his shallow breathing against his ear and feel the heat radiating from his body and tried to convince himself that it was enough for now. He would take him to the sea and find that city, find the medicine, find _whoever_ there was that had some kind of magical healing similar to that of the Galra and Shiro would be fine. Bending over again, he grabbed the map and left the shack without bothering to even look at anything else.

Not long after Keith had started walking he noticed that the newly acquired Galra senses were of a lot more help than anticipated. For one, he was stronger than before: no matter how much time passed, Shiro didn’t grow heavier at all. It was almost ridiculous how easy it was to carry him. His eyes were able to see clearly in the dark and not once did he stumble over a branch he didn’t see. Once this realization hit him, he tried running with Shiro on his back, surprised to note that it definitely wasn’t as hard as it should have been.

Keith lost track of time. 

At one point he started to get thirsty but he didn’t stop, not even when they passed by a tiny stream. He had to keep going, had to keep Shiro alive.

At another point Shiro started mumbling in his sleep. Keith wasn’t able to understand him but he took the mumbling as proof that Shiro was somehow still alive, so he had to keep going. Just keep going, straight ahead, all the way to the shore.

It had to be the middle of the night when Keith noticed that he was sweating. A lot. He could feel it soaking through his shirt and sticking it to his back. It took him another hour or two to realize that it wasn’t actually sweat but Shiro’s blood that had seeped through the blanket bandages and was now soaking his shirt, too.

It didn't matter. As long as he kept running and Shiro kept breathing they would reach their destination and Shiro would get his medicine. He had to believe in that.

The sun wasn’t even at the horizon yet when Keith reached the beach. He could feel the ground changing beneath his feet, making walking a lot more difficult than it had been before. Keith also realized that this last part of the way would be a lot more straining than the run through the woods had been… and that he had no idea where he was supposed to go now.

Careful not to jostle Shiro too much, Keith took out the map and stared at the point that Shiro had touched earlier. They had to be pretty close, maybe a little too high up still but technically he should have been able to see any kind of establishment that sold medicine from here. 

There was no such thing though, the beach was empty.

He didn’t have much of a choice, now, did he?

Slowly Keith lowered himself to the ground, letting Shiro slip from his back against a tree. The man didn’t complain, he simply slouched there, definitely not conscious. 

“Shiro!” Keith shook his shoulder a little but didn’t get any reaction from him. Understandable, with him running the whole time Shiro had to have been used to getting shaken around a bit.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Keith said, slapping Shiro’s face lightly. Shiro grunted and moved away from the sting but didn’t open his eyes. “Shiro!”

Nothing.

Oh god, this couldn’t be happening.

“Shiro! Shiro, come on, please wake up!” Keith’s voice rose in volume but he couldn’t be bothered to lower it. It was probably even better like this, he had to wake Shiro up somehow. The beach had been empty anyway.

In the end it was a firm squeeze to his wound that forced Shiro to open his eyes and lean away from Keith. “Hurts,” he complained in a raspy voice. Keith was so happy, he felt like crying. Who would have guessed that he would ever feel happy to hear Shiro talking like this?

“Alright, Shiro, we’re at the beach. You have to help me now. Where do I have to go?”

“Lance,” was the mumbled answer. Keith let out a frustrated noise.

“Yeah, but I don’t know where that is. To the left? To the right? Is it on the beach or in the woods near the beach?”

Shiro’s face spoke of pain. “Beach.” 

And he passed out again.

“Shiro? Shiro! Shiro, come on! You can’t just- please, Shiro-” But no matter what Keith did, Shiro didn’t wake up again. Panicked he felt for his pulse - it was still there, beating. 

It was weak though. Oh so weak. Way weaker than it should have been.

Cursing heavily, Keith hoisted Shiro up into his arms. They were close to wherever they had to be anyway so it didn’t matter that it was decidedly more difficult to carry him like this than on the back. 

Walking on the beach proved to be a challenge that Keith soon realized wasn’t worth it. Shiro weighted him down a lot which made him sink into the sand more and since he had absolutely no idea where Lance was he tired out faster than expected. After running a while up the beach and realizing that there was nothing, it was obviously the wrong direction, and running the same way back down and further down and still finding nothing, Keith came to the conclusion that he couldn’t keep carrying Shiro like this. 

Pressing his lips into a thin line, he searched for a tree that was hidden from plain sight before propping Shiro up against it. Shiro groaned a little but he was still alive, still breathing, Keith still had a chance to find the medicine. He allowed himself a few breaths of just sitting there and committing Shiro’s face to memory before getting up and running again.

Keith ran for a long time. He ran up and down and up and down again, always coming back to check on Shiro and growing more desperate by the moment. They had reached the beach, he was so close, this couldn’t be it! Shiro wouldn’t have made this location up to keep him away from the Galra castle, would he?!

Keith let out a pained scream and ran even faster. He was tiring himself out and the sun was already coming up but he honestly couldn’t care less. Shiro was still alive. He still had a chance. Keith had to find _something_ to help him.

Just when he got ready to run back up again, Keith noticed a person at the beach. They were still far away so he couldn’t see them clearly but there definitely was a person. Maybe they knew about Lance. It was the only sign of civilization out here that he had seen so far.

“Hey! You!” Keith shouted and ran towards the person - man, as it turned out - at full speed. The guy flinched and turned around, obviously not expecting anyone else to be here.

“Where is Lance?!” Keith shouted at him from far away. The closer he got, the clearer the terror became on the guy’s face. 

Oh right. He was a Galra right now. A… _bloodstained_ Galra.

“M-me? Are you talking to me?!” the guy squeaked and turned around, as if he thought that there would be someone else Keith would be talking to. Keith came to a halt and tried to steady his breathing.

“Yeah, you. Where the fuck is Lance?! I need to go there quickly.”

The guy just kept staring at him. “Why?” he finally asked slowly.

Keith didn’t have _time_ for this.

“Listen, my friend is about to _die_ and I really, really need some medicine. I don’t have time to play around and make smalltalk!”

“And what exactly makes you think I would help you?!” 

Keith did a double take at the venom in the guy’s voice. He hadn’t - he didn’t even _know_ him. What was his problem?

“If you listened to me you would know that my friend is _dying_. He is literally on the _verge of death_. Are you going to let him die or what?!”

The guy bristled. “Maybe I will?! Excuse me for not exactly being fond of the people that were trying to kill me!”

Not it was Keith’s turn to stare at him. “I’ve never met you in my life,” was all he could think of saying.

“Maybe not you personally but let me tell you, I am not very fond of your uncles and aunts. Every dead Galra is one problem less to deal with.”

Well, technically the guy wasn’t wrong but- “My friend is no Galra! He is _human_ and _dying_ and if you don’t tell me right the fuck now where Lance is I’ll make you join him!”

Keith knew that threatening his only chance for help wasn’t exactly one of his best ideas but he was getting a little desperate here. His desperation had been dripping from every word and he wasn’t about to take _any_ of them back. Thankfully his outburst seemed to have had some kind of effect on the guy though, if his the way he looked at him now had anything to do with it.

“Alright, I will- I will take a look at him. Just let me get some water-”

Keith just about lost it.

“I don’t care whether you are thirsty or really have to pee or whatever! Just fucking tell me how I can get to Lance and get him his medicine, he really doesn’t have much time left!”

But the guy ignored him and kept going towards the ocean. Keith felt tears of frustration gathering in his eyes while he grabbed his hair and kept screaming at the man. He obviously knew something about where Keith had to go but the selfish prick decided to keep it all to himself-

“Alright asshole, you can shut up now or I’ll think again about helping you!” the guy snapped and turned around with a furious expression. “You keep blabbering on about how you want my help but you don’t even let me do my work-”

“What the fuck are you talking about?! I just want an answer to my fucking questio-” But before Keith could finish his sentence, his mouth suddenly froze in place. Startled at his own silence Keith tried to peer down at his own mouth, going a bit crossy-eyed at the attempt. There was definitely something covering it though.

“My name is Lance, you are an asshole and I now have enough water to treat an injured human,” the man said and pointed at a huge, levitating orb of water next to him. Keith’s eyes went wide. “I will just assume that you are not, in fact, part of a Galra ambush that’s trying to kill me-” cutting himself off, Lance frowned a bit. Then he sighed. “I must be insane.”

Keith, for his part, couldn’t do anything besides stare at the guy. Lance wasn’t a place, it - he - was a human. Lance was a magician. A _human_ magician.

Something that shouldn’t even exist anymore after the Galra had pretty much annihilated every human magician and every single one of their far relatives. 

Despite his head still spinning from this revelation Keith suddenly understood why Shiro kept silent about this until the last second. Not only did Keith looking like a Galra make Lance less than likely to help but he was also endangering the last human magician in this country by coming here. Also Shiro had always been the kind of person to put someone else’s life above his own… Keith should have expected something like this.

Except he didn’t. Because human magicians weren’t supposed to exist anymore.

Silently - because yes, the damn water was still covering his mouth - Keith ran up the beach, leading the way to Shiro. He had to slow down again multiple times because Lance’s human legs couldn’t keep up with his but they got there eventually.

As soon as Keith saw Shiro’s motionless body against the tree, he crouched down to feel for his pulse. For one moment Keith thought he had been to late, that there wasn’t anything left to save and he felt all air leave his body at once but then he picked up on a faint, steady beat. Whirling around to Lance and clawing at the water on his mouth to make it go away he urgently pointed towards Shiro.

Lance just stood there, less than a foot away, eyes wide. “Shiro…?” he whispered.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY SHIRO ILY REALLY
> 
> Also sorry to you guys, there is not a lot of Lance yet in this chapter. Don't worry though, he'll definitely have a bigger role from here on out! (This story will have an alternating POV^^)
> 
> Oh, the number of chapters might go up to 11, it depends of how much I manage to put into the last few chapters.


	2. Lance can't stand the Galra guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance REALLY can't stand the Galra guy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I actually have so many things to say.
> 
> 1\. This story has an alternating POV - last chapter was Keith's view, this is gonna be Lance's view, next is gonna be Keith's again.  
> 2\. I'll update every 3 days, probably.  
> 3\. I struggled a lot with the first part of the chapter and I don't really like it but I honestly don't think I can do any better. English is so hard my dudes.............. and I don't have a beta.  
> 4\. I don't know the slightest thing about treating cut off arms so don't think too much about anything medicine related I wrote there. Just. Just don't.

Lance hadn’t really been entirely convinced that the Galra wouldn’t lead him into a trap until he had seen the pretty much dead body leaning up against a tree. The man didn’t wear a shirt but there was a lot of ripped fabric pressed against his right shoulder, messily held together by even more torn, makeshift bandages. There was also blood. A lot of blood. And when Lance noticed that the guy was missing an arm, he almost fainted right then and there.

But he didn’t, so he forced himself to take a look at the guy’s face. It was ashen despite the sweat across his forehead… a fever, probably. He really didn’t look too good.

If Lance was being completely honest, he looked pretty much dead already.

The Galra apparently wasn’t having any of that, he dropped to his knees and frantically started searching for a pulse. Lance was already trying to think of the nicest ways possible to tell him that his companion was dead, done for, had made his way to the other side, when he suddenly realized that he knew that face. Sure, it wasn’t completely the same, there was a giant scar in the middle and the white tuft of hair didn’t seem familiar either but… “Shiro…?” 

Oh my god. It was _Shiro_.

The Galra turned around, desperately clawing at the water Lance had used to glue his lips together. 

There was no doubt. It was Shiro. It was _him_. Definitely him.

Lance felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. Multiple times at that. All his air left his lungs at once and he was left trembling, not understanding what just had happened. This couldn’t be happening. Not to Shiro.

He couldn't let him die.

“Out of the way, Galra!” Lance snapped and pushed him aside. He didn’t bother to lift the spell that kept him silent, he knew from experience that worried people were always more of a distraction than help. And the Galra definitely was worried about Shiro, however he might know him.

Probably less careful than he should have, Lance began ripping the bandages off. They were tied together tightly in a desperate attempt to stop Shiro from bleeding to death. This wasn’t happening, this wasn’t happening, oh god, this couldn't be happening…

“Fucking _hell_ Shiro, just what did you _do_ ,” Lance whispered and finally managed to rip off the last big stripe of the fabric that held pretty much half a blanket to Shiro’s side. Immediately fresh blood started trickling out of the wound. Lance cursed again as he made it stop flowing and created an artificial blood flow between his open veins. Parts of the wound had already begun to heal and Lance made a pained face. This was _bad_. Not one to waste any time though, had dug his fingers into festering, bloody, heated flesh to rip the wound open again and make the blood flow as it was supposed to.

The moment he sunk his fingers into Shiro’s arm, Lance got brutally thrown back into the tree behind him. He had barely time to process that no, his fingers definitely weren’t in an ugly looking, deadly wound anymore when his back hit the wood. Hard.

_“Ouch!”_ That would turn into one ugly bruise, Lance could already tell. “What the _fuck_ do you think you are doing, asshole?!” 

Not only had the Galra thrown him back, he now stood protectively between Lance and Shiro, yellow eyes flashing dangerously. He was acting as if _Lance_ was the danger here. What was he doing? Hadn’t he wanted to _save_ Shiro?! Was this a trap after all?!

Not if Lance could help it. Not with Shiro.

The Galra had taken up scratching wildly at the water around his mouth again. Lance didn’t give him the satisfaction to lift the spell, he simply used a small portion of the water orb that was still hovering next to his head to push him back against a tree and pin him there. Around the throat, just in case the guy got the excellent idea to cut his _own_ arm off and Lance had to stop _two_ people from bleeding to death. He would deal with the angry monster later. 

The nuisance taken care of, Lance quickly made his way back to Shiro. His own heart was still thumping way too fast - whether it was from the throw or from he shock of seeing Shiro again after so many years, he didn’t know. He just knew that he desperately wished he could at least lend half of his heartbeat’s strength to the man in front of him. 

God, he needed to stop thinking so much and start acting already. Shiro was _dying_. 

Water collected around his fingers, cleaning them from blood and dirt before he coated them with a fresh layer. He had long since pushed the salt and bacteria out of the sphere of water so that it was safe to use to treat Shiro. Now he had to hurry though. 

Shiro’s blood was still continuing its odd circulation process in midair and Lance was quick to press any oxygen away from it, assuring that the blood wouldn’t clump and block his blood vessels. He then started to extract all the pus and dirt from the festering wound and dumped it carelessly onto the ground next to him. Now was not the time to worry about pretty procedures.

Once that was taken care of, Lance took in a large breath of air. The most complicated part lay right ahead of him and not for the first time he was thankful that his magic affinities lay where they were. He could only imagine how helpless he would feel now if his primary affinity was fire. 

Slowly Lance stretched his water out until Shiro's torso was coated in a thin layer of liquid. He then put his hands to his chest, breaching the coating until he felt cold skin under his fingers. Lance took one last breath, then let it all go.

Tiny waves of sound rippled through Shiro, pushing against tissue and muscles and bones until he found his heart. It was weak and pumped way too slowly so Lance kept sending out tiny nudges of waves that forced it to work faster, beat harder.

Next was the infection. He couldn’t detect it with sound magic, he would have to rely on light magic to clean out every single bit of it. But fuck, he didn’t have time to deal with long spells! He would have to make do with his water to clean out the worst, most obvious stuff and take care of any other remnants after Shiro was out of immediate danger. Thankful that Shiro was passed out and didn’t have to feel anything from this process, Lance began to force the water to enter his skin.

Lance had once been told by a little boy with a broken arm that he was a horrible doctor. He had said that the water entering his arm hurt way more than actually breaking the bone and Lance had made sure that from that moment on he blocked all nerves that were connected to the area of treatment to the best of his abilities. It had taken him a long time until he had perfected this method and both Pidge and Hunk still cradled their hands protectively to their chests whenever Lance treated someone. They were idiots: he obviously knew what he was doing nowadays. 

But back on topic - Shiro was passed out and wouldn’t notice anything if he just went for it and neither Pidge nor Hunk were here to tell him to block his nerves nonetheless (which he, frankly, wouldn’t have been able to do anyway - the affected area was just way too big). With no one there to stop him, Lance kept pushing. Soon enough he felt the water entering the blood circulation and carefully skimmed through it, taking all the ugly stuff he could away until there was nothing but clean, red blood left. He proceeded to wash his gatherings out, which was made a lot easier by Shiro’s large open wound, before once again checking over Shiro’s heart.

Too weak. It was too weak still.

It didn’t really come as a surprise. He knew that Shiro had probably lost too much blood to simply save his life by half-assedly treating the infection and restoring a proper blood flow. The panic he felt didn’t really care about stuff being obvious or not though, Lance felt it clashing over him, almost paralyzing his brain. Fucking fuck, Shiro was on the verge of death! What would he do if he actually died?!

No. No, he had to concentrate now. What could he do to stabilize Shiro’s heart?

They had the same blood type. 

Lance ripped his hands from Shiro’s body and formed a tiny water blade before ramming it into his skin. Grimacing because damn, there was probably a way to do this that _didn’t_ include straight up stabbing himself, Lance drew out some of his own blood. And more and more until there was an orb approximately one quarter of the original size of his water ball hovering in front of him. He felt kind of dizzy from the sudden blood loss but didn’t pay it any mind as a tiny bit of water covered his wound. He had more important stuff to do.

Time for an infusion.

Slowly and carefully Lance let his own blood enter Shiro’s circulation. It was a nerve wracking process, both because Lance had next to no experience with it and because he wasn’t the type to stay calm for so long. He could feel his nerves trying to get the better of him but he pushed them away, away, away - he could panic later. After he had saved Shiro’s life.

Once all of his blood had entered Shiro’s body, Lance checked for the heartbeat again. It was still weak but definitely steadier than before. He would live, probably. Good, Lance wasn’t exactly sure how much more magic he could take. His head hurt already.

Groaning softly, he closed his eyes and let himself fall onto his back. It still hurt from the its brutal encounter with the tree but Lance didn't focus too much on that. He didn't focus on much of anything, he just let himself breathe and bask in the knowledge that Shiro would live. There was the sound of birds around him and waves crashing and he could feel the warmth of the sun warming his face. It was... relaxing. Now that he thought about it, it was actually quite a bit warmer than before, he had probably treated Shiro for a lot longer than it had felt like.

Worth it.

“He’ll live,” he breathed into the air. Voicing his thoughts made them seem that much more real, he could practically feel the worry sliding off his shoulders. It was replaced by lightheadedness and relief and Lance wouldn’t have been able to stop the grin taking over his face if he tried. “He’ll live,” he repeated, louder this time.

Shiro would _live_.

Lance let a relieved laugh bubble up in his chest. That had been - close. The closest case Lance had ever had. His hands were still shaking from the stress he had been under and he could still feel the echo of panic in his stomach, but it was okay now. It was fine.

There was a shuffling noise and then a stone hit his head. Hard. _Ouch_.

Lance shot up and glared at the Galra that was still stuck to the tree Lance had pinned him to. A wave of dizziness washed over him but it wasn’t bad enough for him to lay down again. Instead he he kept giving the Galra the darkest scowl he could possibly muster after finding out that Shiro would _live_.

The Galra looked downright pissed.

What was his _problem?!_

Alright, maybe Lance had forgotten about him and _alright_ , maybe it had been kind of an asshole-ish move to stick him to a tree for hours but a little more respect for the guy that had just performed a miracle, please?! He had saved Shiro! Shiro had been on the verge of death! Shiro would _live!_

Apparently unfazed by Lance’s glare, the Galra kept glaring right back.

Okay. Time to face the angry monster guy.

With a wave of his hand Lance made both of his spells on the guy disappear.

_“What the fuck is your problem?!”_ the Galra asked him angrily.

Yeah, maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. He was not in the mood to deal with this. Without a second of hesitation Lance renewed the speaking ban and crawled over to Shiro.

Uh. Right. Shiro’s blood was still circulating outside his body.

Groaning because damn, that would mean a lot more healing, Lance buried his face in his hands. “Whyyyy,” he whined. He was exhausted, his head hurt and he honestly just wanted to go to sleep.

Suddenly he was ripped away by the Galra that was furiously pointing at the open wound. Lance could feel his skin getting pierced by sharp claws which meant that not only he was hurt but his shirt was also ruined now. Irritated, he batted the arm away. 

“ _Ow!_ I know! Okay?! I know! There is not enough water here to treat that and my legs hurt but as long as I keep the blood flowing and all air away from the wound he is out of danger. We’ll have to carry him to my house.”

The Galra was frustratedly clenching and unclenching his fists as if he desperately wanted to tell him something but Lance waved him off. If he didn’t believe him that he was trying to help after he had _obviously_ saved Shiro’s life it was his own fault. Lance pushed himself onto his feet and steadied himself against a tree when he could feel the dizziness return. Just exactly how much blood had he given to Shiro that he was still so weak? Or was it the magic?

Closing his eyes, he breathed in deeply. Held his breath. Breathed out again. He repeated that about ten times until he felt a little steadier.

Opening his eyes again, he noticed that the Galra had already picked Shiro up and held him protectively against his chest. Shiro’s right side was facing away from him towards Lance, at least the guy had enough common sense to know that touching the artificial blood flow was a bad idea.

Oh, and also he was scowling at Lance. Again. Hard. 

What an asshole.

“Shut up!” Lance snapped at him. He had just healed Shiro for god’s sake! What was the guy’s problem?! _Excuse him_ for being _human_ and needing a moment to steady himself after giving up god knows how much of his own blood to save Shiro!

The guy fixed him with a deadpan stare and Lance could almost hear the _‘I didn’t even say anything’_ in his head. Angrily he threw his arms into the air and started stomping away.

Was it really a good idea to bring a Galra into his house?

Well, the Galra cared about Shiro. Or at least pretended to, so he couldn’t really be half bad. Right? He was kind of an asshole - a glance over his shoulder revealed that yup, he was still being scowled at - but that didn’t mean he was evil. Probably. Hopefully.

Lance kept walking in silence all the way back to his house. It was unusual for him but he really didn’t want to deal with the Galra guy. He wanted to talk to Shiro but for that to happen he had to heal him up first and for _that_ to happen they had to get to the house which meant that Lance needed the guy because there was no way he could carry Shiro all on his-

Right. They reached the house and Lance came to a halt. The Galra was scowling at him again and Lance belatedly realized that he probably couldn’t see it with it being cloaked and all. Lance wasn’t about to lift the light spell though, if there were other Galra following this one he wouldn’t make their search for him any easier. 

“Alright big boy, close your eyes!” Lance would put a simple spell onto him so that he’d be able to see through the disguise. No big deal.

But he was met by a deep, scary scowl instead. With teeth. And yellow eyes. Oh god, maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

Pushing negative thoughts aside, Lance scowled right back. “Look, smarty pants, it’s a little late to start doubting me now. Keep your eyes open if you want to but don’t blame me when you start walking against invisible furniture!”

Despite the Galra obviously being frustrated he closed his eyes. Huh, so he had some common sense after all. For a moment Lance considered rewarding him for that: he’d just cast his spell and be done with it. But his back and shoulder still throbbed and he had kicked a goddamn stone against his head so… nope. He wasn’t about to play nice.

He smirked. Time for revenge. 

The spell was in place after a few seconds, it was probably the only light spell he could cast that quickly. He had to renew Hunk’s and Pidge’s every few months after all. He then raised a bit of water from the sea and released it over the Galra’s head. A harmless joke, really, almost not even worthy of being called 'revenge' but the Galra’s reaction made it all worth it. He visibly jerked and ripped his eyes open, immediately going into a defensive stance.

Lance laughed. “ _Your face,_ oh my god, I haven’t seen anything that entertaining in _years_ , this was the best idea ever! Morning sleepy head, I take it you don’t enjoy showers?” 

If looks could kill Lance would definitely be dead by now.

But they couldn’t and the image of a Galra standing miserably and dripping wet in front of him while cradling an injured human in his arms was just too much for him. He cracked up again. “What’s it with you?! You you are such an asshole and have to be the grumpiest person I’ve ever seen and you just,” Lance gestured at the guy that hadn’t even made a move to wipe any water away but was scowling harder than ever, “you just keep _standing_ there!” The Galra’s glare grew in intensity and he worked his jaw in a way that told Lance he was just seconds away from snapping. 

Good.

“What, you’ve got nothing to say?” he taunted.

That last part might have been a little much if the threatening growl that seemed to come straight from the guy’s chest was any indication. Lance sobered up again. As quickly has he could he touched his hand to the Galra’s arm, coaxing the salt water from him into another ball that he dumped on the sand next to him. Then he pulled away before he would get ripped apart or something.

“Uh. yeah. Anyway. This is my house. Welcome?” he said and gestured to the tiny house behind him.

It was a nice house, if he did say so himself. It was mainly made out of wood and hardened clay that he had found a little farther down the beach, Lance still remembered the day he had returned with it excitedly and had called Hunk and Pidge over to help him applying it to the house. In total it had taken them about ten full days to cover the entirety of it but the image it made in the early morning sun was totally worth it.

It had a warm, dark brown color and a few windows. Lance obviously didn’t have the luxury of glass - he knew that glass was something like extremely hot sand but fire magic had never been his forte. Hell, he couldn't even light a candle! He didn’t need glass for his windows though, he had blinds that he could close during the night and during the day he was able to feel the wind all throughout his house. Sure, it could get cold sometimes during winter, but he had two tiny fire places and countless blankets to counter the evil that was coldness. 

Lance loved this place to death. It was his home, his safe place, the one spot where he could completely be himself and didn’t have to hide any of his abilities. He felt lonely sometimes but whenever that was the case he would go diving or visit Pidge or Hunk or make his daily routine throughout the tiny villages nearby. And if he was really, really lonely he sometimes even allowed himself to play with the thought of talking to his family. He never did though, he couldn’t risk them getting into danger because of him. 

At the tug on his heart Lance wiped any thoughts of his family aside. Now was not the time.

“I have a tub on the outside, even if you can’t see it from here,” he explained and started making his way around the house. The Galra followed. “That’s where we will place Shiro. There already is a lot of clean water in it but if you want to make yourself useful you can grab one of the buckets over there,” he pointed at them “and get some new seawater. There can honestly never be enough water for this. I’ll try to close his wound to the best of my abilities but I honestly don’t know how to heal a _cut off arm-_ ”

Oh god. He would have to somehow dull the edge of the clean cut bone, wouldn’t he? 

“I’ll- yeah, uh, I’ll manage. Probably. It’s a lot of work though and I’m not sure how much strength I’ll have left after it so it’ll be up to you to grab some blankets and wrap him up in them. He probably needs to be kept warm after all of this. You should also get a clean shirt for yourself,” Lance added at the sight of bloodstains all over it. “I’ll lift your speaking ban now since I’ll need every bit of magic that I can possibly get but if you decide to be an ass I’ll put it back. Trust me, I will find a way to make do without it.” _Hopefully_. Lance sounded a lot more confident than he felt. “Got it?”

The Galra scowled but nodded curtly. Lance waved his hands once and the spell broke.

“Did you have to do that?!” the Galra immediately complained. Lance wasn’t sure whether he spoke about the no-talking spell or the water from before. Not that it mattered. 

“What did I say about you being an ass?” he asked instead and rose one eyebrow.

The Galra scowled again - did the guy even have any other expressions? - but didn’t say anything else. Lance shook his head. “Let’s just get this over with. Once I have healed most of his wound and you put him into a warm place, you can leave and we’ll never have to see each other again.”

“And Shiro?”

“He’ll stay,” Lance decided. The Galra might care enough about him to try to get him some help but Lance wasn’t about to leave his rescuer, his _hero,_ with a _Galra_. 

The Galra did not seem to appreciate his opinion.

“No way. He’ll stay with me.”

“Will not.”

“I took care of him for a lot longer than you did! You don’t get to decide anything!”

“Na na na na na na, I can’t hear you!” Lance started singing and put his hands over his ears. God, he couldn’t stand the guy. If he cared so much about Shiro why couldn't he just let Lance do his work?!

“Are you a child?!” Lance ignored him and kept singing and making stupid faces at him. “Stop that!” 

In the end he shut Lance up through kicking him in the leg. _Hard_. God, this bruise would be even uglier than the one on his back. What an _asshole._

Lowering his hands Lance started yelling.

“What is your problem?!”

“My problem?! Are you serious right now?! You are trying to take Shiro away from me and ask me what my problem is?! I’ve broken into the castle, gotten cursed and been running this whole night to get him to survive and you want to take him _away?!”_

The guy had what?

Lance tried to make sense of all the new information but his brain had effectively been overloaded. It threw him off enough to make him focus on the important stuff again so he elected to ignore all it for the moment and point at the tub instead. “Alright, fuck it, I don’t care either way. I get it, you can stay, we’ll talk about this later. Just put him in there?”

For a moment the Galra looked as if he would refuse just for the sake of it but then he lowered Shiro slowly into the water. He hesitated when it was time to submerge the wound with the still flowing blood but Lance made an impatient hand gesture and then Shiro was completely underwater. Honestly, if Lance hadn’t been so used to experiments with water it would have been a little freaky how the blood continued to flow the same way as before, unperturbed by the fact that it was surrounded by other liquid.

As soon as Shiro was underwater, Lance took over the Galra’s place and positioned the human in a way that kept everything besides his head completely covered. “We should have taken off his pants,” he mumbled when he noticed the fabric weaving around and spreading dirt. With a few more commandos Lance had the dirt separated from the water and out of the tub.

The Galra still hovered behind him. “Will you… really be able to heal that?” 

Lance shrugged. He wasn’t in the mood for playing overconfident anymore when he had really genuinely never done this before. “Leave that to me to worry about, you go get more water,” he said.

Then he closed his eyes and let his consciousness glide into the tub.

First things first, he had to dull the bone a bit, otherwise Shiro would cut himself open from the inside. Slowly, carefully he began to let the slide the water against it, over and over again until he felt that it was dull enough not to hurt him. He kept monitoring his heartbeat with sound weaves and his brain activity with light magic to make sure that Shiro kept sleeping through all of this. It was bound to hurt a lot.

Once the bone was no longer any danger, Lance began to use more light magic. It was hard for him, he _really_ didn’t have a high affinity to it, but funnily enough it turned out to be Shiro’s secondary element and Lance used that to its full capacity. He located any remnants of the infection and once again forced water to enter Shiro’s body and wash it out.

When he took a moment to breathe after that Lance could feel that he was exhausted. Completely and utterly exhausted. He disliked having to use light magic so much, it drained him almost like trying to light a fire did.

Lance was vaguely aware that he had now proceeded to actually heal the wound. Connecting veins, calming irritations, closing tissue, cleaning. Despite never having had to deal with such a severe wound the movements almost came naturally to him.

He had now been using four different kinds of magic in what. A few hours? A dull throb in his head told him that this wasn’t a good idea at all. He could feel something slipping but it wasn’t Shiro, he was sure of it, his from was stable and unmoving in the water-

He lost consciousness.

 

* * *

 

When Lance woke up again he was feeling disoriented. His back hurt and so did his shoulder and his leg. And his _head_ , god. He almost wished that he was dead so that he didn’t have to deal with this.

Dead…

Shiro?

Oh god, where was he? Lance tried to open his eyes but was only met with darkness. Why was it so dark?! Had he gone blind?!

He shot up, trying to press his hands to his face but met a wet cloth instead. _What the-?!_

The cloth turned out to be a blanket, wrapped around his head and upper body while another blanket rested around his legs. He was leaning against the tub and part of the blanket had fallen into it, resulting in this wet mess that was weighing him down and currently trying to suffocate him.

When had he fallen asleep? The last thing he remembered was healing Shiro and something slipping, then… nothing.

It came to his mind that he had probably been the one slipping. Huh. Go figure. He had known that all this blood loss earlier had maybe been a little too much. Not to mention all that magic, his head reminded him. Ugh, he needed his tea.

Finally freeing himself from the prison that were the blankets, Lance blinked at the sea. It was getting dark already, which meant that he had basically slept the whole day. Outside. Against the tub with a half drenched blanket around his face.

“That _fucker_.”

Checking to make sure that Shiro really wasn’t in the tub anymore, Lance grabbed both of his blankets and gathered them in his arms. He had half a mind to extract the water from them before stomping into his house, wanting to give the Galra guy a piece of his mind-

Instead he shrieked. 

His house looked as if a tornado had torn through it.

Almost every single one of his cabinets in the living room had been thrown open, some hastily closed again, others not. His precious blankets that faithfully protected him from the cold were strewn literally _everywhere_ and- were that his _pants?!_

“What the fuck happened here?!” A glance into his kitchen showed that at least this place had been spared. His living room, bedroom and guest room? Not so much.

The Galra. Just what was his _problem?!_

Lance continued down the hallway to his room. Empty. At least the guy had had the decency to use his guest room, Lance thought. 

And sure enough, there they were. The Galra was passed out against the wall next to Shiro’s bed, the stress and exhaustion apparently having caught up to him too. 

Shiro himself was in the bed, at least three blankets around him and Lance could see the tips of a bandage peeking out of them. There was some color back on his cheeks and his chest moved in regular, deep intervals. In short, it was obvious that he was alive and as well as he could be at the moment.

Which was actually pretty damn well, considering Lance had managed to heal nearly everything.

Yup, Lance was proud of himself.

He knew that he should probably wake the Galra and offer him some blankets to make himself a makeshift bed. But after the guy had half-suffocated him with wet blankets he didn’t really deserve Lance’s kindness. He’d let him stay like this and wake up with sore bones, Lance decided.

Grumbling under his breath he made his way over to the kitchen. He almost face planted nearly three times because of the _damn blankets_ that were littering his floor like sand littered the beach and with each time he could feel his hatred for the Galra grow. Honestly, Lance wouldn’t mind it if he just disappeared again. 

“The fuck did I do to deserve this,” he complained miserably as he reached for one of the higher shelves to make himself his tea against magical exhaustion. He had had enough headaches to know the drill by now. He also knew that he couldn’t be bothered with lighting a fire right now - his hands still felt too sluggish to use the stones correctly and he was definitely in to position to even attempt to light the fire with a spell - so he just drank the tea cold. It didn’t taste half as good but still held full effect, which was pretty much everything he cared about at this point. 

After his headache was taken care of, Lance healed the tiny cuts in his shoulders from the Galra’s claws and began to make himself some food. He wasn’t a great cook by any means, he usually just asked Hunk to make him some stuff that lasted for a long time, but even he could prepare some fish. As hungry as he was it probably didn’t even matter whether the fish tasted good or not.

It took him a total of maybe two thoughts wasted on the Galra before he angrily started to prepare a second fish. He really hoped for the guy that he wouldn’t make any dumb comments about Lance’s cooking or there would be no more food for him. Lance wasn’t even sure why he was cooking him something now! The Galra most certainly did nothing to deserve it.

But hey, Lance was a good guy, and there was nothing bad about that. Right? Hunk would be proud of him. His mom would be too.

Setting the fish on a plate and then on the table, he made his way back to the guest room. The Galra was still asleep and so was Shiro but Lance didn’t let himself dwell long on that. He kicked against the Galra’s legs, softly. 

“Hey. Wake up. Food’s ready.”

Nothing.

Oh well, it didn’t look as if Lance had any other choice. He extended his foot and kicked the guy properly this time. Hopefully it would leave a bruise matching the one he had given Lance.

_“Fucking hell_ , ow! What-?!”

“Food’s ready,” Lance repeated happily. The Galra scowled. 

“You again.” The disdain was evident in his voice.

“Yeah, you’re not getting rid of me any time soon if you’re staying with Shiro. I made food though.”

The Galra huffed and turned away to look at Shiro. “You’re probably trying to poison me.”

Fucking _what_. Lance could feel his last string of patience dissolving into thin air.

“Listen asshole! I don’t know what your problem with me is-”

“ _My_ problem with _you?!_ I could ask you the same thing-”

“Hey! The point is that I am actually trying to be _nice_ for once and _you_ -”

“Oh yeah it was very nice of you to _kick me awake-”_

“Now you are just being childish, that was payback-”

_“Oh look who’s talking about childish-”_

A groan from Shiro cut both of them off. Within a heartbeat they were both by his side, anxiously hovering over him and waiting for him to wake up. Was he in pain?

Lance never got an answer to his question, Shiro didn’t wake up. His breathing evened out again soon. Lance exchanged a look with the Galra and silently motioned for him to follow him. And he did, although begrudgingly.

Lance led him to the kitchen where the fish was still waiting for him. It had cooled off a bit - yes, after the tea Lance’s hands had finally been calm enough to use the stones and light a fire - and was just the perfect temperature for eating. The Galra’s stomach growled and Lance smirked.

“So I take it you changed your mind about the food?”

“Shut up,” the Galra mumbled half-heartedly, already too focused on the food to care much about conversation. Well, Lance could relate. They ate in a weirdly, half comfortable silence for a few moments until he couldn’t take it any longer.

“So, what happened anyway? How did Shiro lose his entire arm?”

Lance waited. And waited. 

And waited. 

Just when he was about to forget it because _clearly_ the Galra was too focused on being a little shit to answer him, he got a response. 

“Galra.”

Lance waited for a bit. Nothing else came. “That’s it?” he prompted, only to be met by a scowl.

“Why do you care?”

“Because I just saved his life?!” _Because he saved mine back then?_

The Galra looked down and away again, abandoning the food. He obviously wasn’t planning on elaborating anytime soon. Lance wasn’t even sure what he had expected. Sure, he hadn’t known the guy for long but he had proved time and time again that he was nothing if not an asshole. He would just ask Shiro when he woke up, no big deal.

“Care to tell me at least how you, _a Galra_ , is helping him now?” he asked through clenched teeth. 

Finally the Galra looked back up and started eating again. “I am no Galra,” he said.

Lance blinked. Then he threw his head back and laughed.

“What?!”

“Listen buddy, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you are most definitely a Galra. You have it all,” Lance gestured to the part of him that wasn’t obscured by the table. “Purple skin, yellow eyes, sharp teeth, fluffy ears, evil claws, a dickish personality-”

“I am no Galra,” the Galra repeated, looking even angrier than before. Lance couldn’t help but laugh some more.

“No, no, you really are, do you want me to get you some water to show you your reflection-”

“I-” the guy spoke over his voice, “am no Galra. I got cursed to look like one when I broke into the castle to get some medicine for Shiro. I am… I am human, but for now I’m stuck like this.”

Lance abruptly stopped laughing. “You… got cursed? To look like this?” When the Galra - human? - nodded, he gulped uncomfortably. 

Honestly? 

He was horrified. 

Spending his life as a Galra seemed like a much worse fate than just… dying. If that had happened to him, would his friends still talk to him? Just the thought of his family's terrified looks made him want to puke. He honestly didn’t want to imagine how much his life would have changed. Desperately trying to distract himself from these thoughts, Lance blurted out a random question.

“Why would they go through they effort to curse you? Why didn’t they just kill you?”

The guy’s jaw clenched and Lance decided to not go there. No matter how unpleasant that human was, he didn’t deserve to dwell on thoughts that made him so obviously uncomfortable. It was kind of understandable now why he was this much of an asshole. Not justified, but understandable.

“Uh, alright, so… tell me about yourself?” There we go. Lance mentally patted his own shoulder. This way the guy could reveal everything he was comfortable with and maybe they could get over their bad start.

“My name is Keith,” he said.

And then nothing.

“Anything else…?” 

Silence. 

“How about how you met Shiro?”

Even more silence.

All fucking right, Lance got the memo. He should probably just give it up already, his friendliness wasn’t wanted here.

“You know what? I don’t know why I even try. Here I am, trying to put our differences behind us-”

“This isn’t easy, okay!” Keith interrupted him. Well, _duh_.

“Of course this isn’t easy! That’s why I asked you these questions! Seriously, the only thing you’re going to tell me about yourself is your name? I don’t know how long it’ll take for Shiro to recover but for the time we are stuck together and I really think I deserve to know more about you than-”

“Oh yeah? Then how about you? Care to tell me why the only human magician that is fucking powerful enough to bring people back from near death hides out by the sea? You keep talking about how much you hate the Galra and how they ruined your life but have you actually ever done anything besides going fishing and splashing in the ocean?!”

Lance froze. This wasn’t a subject he liked to talk about. He knew that he was basically running from his problems. How often had he thought about just going out there, announcing his presence, telling the people not to give up hope because he was still there and he would be fighting with them against the corruption that had taken over this land-

Lance slammed his fork on the table and got up without another word. He wasn’t hungry anymore.

“See?! You have absolutely no reason to judge-”

“This conversation is over,” he said, cutting Keith off. Keith didn’t make any attempt to spark it back to life until Lance had cleared away both of their plates. He knew that he would regret not having eaten the whole thing later but for now he couldn’t care less.

“So… you are a magician, right?”

Lance shot him a look and made a point of letting the water transport the leftovers of their fish out of the window. Keith didn’t seem fazed.

“Does this mean you can break my curse?”

Lance huffed out a laugh. “You know, in order to lift a curse you’d actually have to _tell_ me about it and how it was casted and I am not sure whether you’re ready for that kind of commitme-”

“There was static and lots of violet light. At first I didn’t feel anything, then there was pressure. That’s it.”

“That’s most definitely not it,” Lance responded flatly. “In order to cast a curse - which is different from a spell, mind you, because spells need to be renewed or constantly be fed magic or they’ll stop working - you have to voice the breaking condition. Whoever cursed you told you _exactly_ what you have to do to break it.”

Keith’s eyes widened a bit, then a pained expression took over. Lance could only guess that it wasn’t a nice condition… but then again, they were Galra, so what the hell had he expected.

“There is really no other way?”

“Unless you think I am at least twice as strong as the original caster, no.” And Lance knew for a fact that that wasn’t the case - he had once seen a book cursed by the Galra. He hadn’t been able to do anything to even loosen the curse, much less lifting it. He had given up on trying after three days and had thrown it away, he didn’t like books anyway.

Keith seemed to have come to the conclusion that Lance was too weak to lift the curse and his face closed off again. Lance couldn’t help but feel pity. Being stuck as a Galra… nope, he wasn’t going there again. Time for a change of pace.

“Alright, with that stuff out of the way, we should get to work!” he exclaimed and stretched a little.

“We?” Keith asked dubiously. Lance shot him a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“You didn’t think you’d be able to live here as a freeloader, do you?”

“I- what? But Shiro is-”

“Healing and asleep,” Lance cut in smoothly, “and he’ll stay that way for quite a while. For now you can help me with my daily chores.”

“Daily… chores?” Keith seemed hesitant to say the last. This was going to be so much fun.

“Yup. Being a magician living on his own is quite a lot of work, you know. We will have to clean the tub outside, wash the dishes, prepare my usual potions for tomorrow - hang on, I missed making my round today, so we’ll have to make a little more than usual - put all my blankets, clothes and bandages back to where they belong, feed my jellyfish, clean the algae tanks since you stopped me to do so this morning-” With every chore he listed Keith’s face grew more and more horrified. 

“All of that?!”

“I wasn’t even finished,” Lance responded happily. “You see, I have a some old boots that need to get cleaned too and I need to get some new fish after we threw this one away and someone has to change Shiro’s bandages-”

“I can do that,” Keith interjected. Lance laughed. 

“You can do that and more! How about you get started with the tub and the dishes and the algae tanks, ever since the algae died they have started to smell pretty bad, I’ll take care of the potions for now.”

Lance would pay actual money to see Keith’s expression again. 

“Are you- are you serious right now, I have to clean your shit-”

“Not in this tone, young man,” Lance chided him. Keith threw his arms out.

“You just told me to clean an _algae tank-_ ”

“Well, yeah! I would have done it myself this morning but you interrupted me, so…” Lance knew he was wearing an obnoxious grin and couldn't help but deepen it even more.

“You are a water magician! Can’t you just clean all of that within seconds?!” Keith’s voice almost cracked with how agitated he was. Lance was having the time of his life as he loaded the plates from dinner and the one from breakfast onto Keith’s arms. 

“I could,” he admitted, “but where would be the fun in that?”

Keith gaped at him. “So you are telling me I’ll be out there, doing the most disgusting work you could think of, _work_ _that you could do without so much as lifting a finger_ while you are in here playing with spices and herbs?!”

“Exactly,” Lance confirmed and steered him out of the kitchen. “Now go pay your rent, Galra-boy. I only want to see your face again when everything is in top form! The tank is outside at the back, the algae I keep - well, kept now, they are dead - like a little shadow. Uh, _liked_. Oh and yeah, it’s totally fine if you use the ocean water to clean everything, I can just get rid of the salt and dirt later on.”

“Then what is even the _point_ of cleaning them-” Keith began in an exasperated tone but Lance closed the door behind him. He immediately pressed his ear against the wood, waiting for Keith’s reaction.

Silence. Silence. 

Then: “What is _wrong_ with him?!”

Lance couldn’t suppress a snicker as he got started on the potions. He quite enjoyed doing them, he had long since found that making them gave him an almost therapeutic calm feeling. Humming a random tune, he cut up different herbs and mixed them together, some in the pot that was currently heating over a tiny fire and some in cold, clear water. He hadn’t even realized how much time had passed until Keith’s “I’m back!” made him leave the counter and approach the hallway instead.

It was dark outside and Keith wet, but there were no pots or plates. Lance frowned.

“Hey, where did you leave my stuff?”

“Tub,” was the gruff reply. 

“Well, bring them in here!”

“Go get them yourself, asshole!” Keith reached for one of the blankets that were still strewn all across the floor and put it around his wet shoulders. He shivered. Lance pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows.

“So… care to tell me how you got this wet?” Lance asked. 

Keith snapped his head into Lance’s direction and looked at him with straight out hate. “How exactly do you think I cleaned the gigantic wooden thing out there?!” He was talking about the tub. Lance frowned.

“Well, with water. You went to the sea and brought some water up, cleaned it, brought some new water…?”

If possible Keith’s gaze grew even darker. “That,” he gritted out through bared teeth, “does not work for people that aren’t able to magically lift the dirty water out of the tub.”

“So what? You carried the entire thing to the ocean and decided to take a swim with it?”

Huh. The idea actually seemed to be fun. The tub was wooden, he wondered whether it would be able to keep him afloat like a tiny boat.

“I did _not_ take a swim! I uselessly tried to _clean_ the thing and now it’s even dirtier than before because the ocean is definitely dirtier than your healing water and I am wet and freezing while you are in here playing with _flowers_ and _fire-”_

Lance lifted his hands in surrender. “I get it, I get it. Here, let me dry your-”

_“Don’t touch me,”_ Keith seethed and roughly shoved him out of the way. Lance looked after him, feeling vaguely uncomfortable about the whole thing. He might have been kind of an ass to him… but hey, he hadn’t really expected Keith to take his work seriously enough to carry the whole tub to the ocean-

A worrying noise of boiling water forced him out of his thoughts again. _Fuck_. His potions. “Oh god, please be okay, please be okay, please be okay,” he kept repeating under his breath.

Thankfully the potions were still fine and he set them aside to let them cool down. Deciding that he’d done enough of them for tomorrow, he left the kitchen to check up on the with sea water cleaned stuff.

There the tub was, its underside full of sand and still wet enough that it left no doubt about Keith’s words. Keith had seriously carried the entire thing to the ocean… Lance felt bad when he trailed his hands over the moist wood, instructing the water to clean away the salt, sand and dirt. He had barely needed a second to do this, he had to admit that he had really been kind of mean towards Keith.

But hey, it wasn’t as if the same thing wasn’t true for _Keith!_ He still had the bruises to prove his point! Plus he had almost suffocated him with a wet blanket! And Keith had decided to talk about the one thing that Lance really didn’t want to talk about _and_ he had rejected his peace offering just now. So really, Keith was partly at fault for making his life more miserable than it had to be.

Lance quietly made his way into the house again and began to pick up some of the blankets on his way. He also started to collect the tiny droplets of water that Keith had left in his trail until he reached the door to his own room. That’s also where he stored his favorite blankets so that he wouldn’t have to walk far to get to them on a cold winter’s night.

A little later he had put the blankets and his clothes back to where they belonged. He guessed that Keith had looked for clothing that fit Shiro since Lance had instructed to keep him warm but he couldn’t imagine that he had had any success with that. Shiro was unfortunately both taller and broader than him.

Shiro.

Right, it was time to check up on his injury. Lance went back to the door again, calling some of the water of the distant ocean to him. Barely a moment after, a tiny orb floated into view and followed him all the way to Shiro’s room. Lance pressed his lips together and knocked. 

“Keith? I’ll have to check up on Shiro now!”

No reaction, so he guessed it was fine to enter.

Slowly Lance opened the door, only putting his head through at first just in case Keith was planning to murder him. He wasn’t, apparently: he was cowered together in the corner next to Shiro’s bed, still with a blanket around his shoulders and still shivering. He looked… pathetic, for the lack of a better word.

“Uh… are you sure you don’t want me to-”

“Just check up on Shiro and leave already,” Keith bit out.

Right. So much for that.

Lance barely managed to suppress an eye roll and went for the bed instead. Keith _really_ wasn’t making his own life any easier. Not that that was important right now.

Shiro had regained a lot of color, enough that he was able to flush in his sleep. Lance pressed a hand to his forehead and yep, still feverish, but nothing that couldn’t be treated. He slowly peeled the blankets away - all three of them, even though Keith honestly needed them more than Shiro at this point - and loosened the bandages.

Last time Lance had seen the wound it had still be raw and open. Now it was… well, still raw if he had to be entirely honest, but definitely not open anymore. It looked more like a really bad scraping wound than the end of a lost limb. This he could deal with.

Closing his eyes, Lance let the water coat his hands and gently pressed them to the wound. It was hot underneath his touch but it was the natural warmth that came with a body trying to heal itself. Nothing like the heat from an infection. 

Honestly? Lance could say it again and again. He was incredibly proud of himself. He had almost failed but he didn't and Shiro was alive.

He was so emerged in his healing that he didn’t notice Shiro moving until Keith was by his side, blanket on the floor and pressing a wet shoulder against him to make more space for himself. “Shiro?”

“Shiro?!” Lance repeated and stopped his healing for a moment. The water kept flowing around his hands, cool and comforting.

Shiro groaned again and suddenly blinked his eyes open. Both Lance and Keith were on him in seconds. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh my god, you are awake already?!”

“Does anything hurt? Do you want some water?”

“Shiro, you can’t do this ever again, I _swear_ my heart stopped beating for a moment when I saw you against that tree!” 

Shiro blinked a few times and raised his hand to stop them. The movement in his right shoulder made it clear that he had expected there to be another arm and Lance really wished he wasn’t there to witness the pain on the his face when he realized that there was... nothing but air. 

“Keith? And… Lance?” Shiro asked in a rough voice. Lance was nodding frantically while Keith hovered anxiously over Shiro, not quite sure what to do.

Shiro let out a quiet laugh and closed his eyes again. “It’s been so long.”

“Yeah well, you _could_ have visited me, you know,” Lance grumbled. He wasn’t really angry though, he was mainly just relieved that Shiro was well enough to talk again. Shiro huffed out another laugh, then he opened his eyes again. His gaze fell on Keith and he frowned.

“Why are you still-”

“Later,” Keith interrupted him with a short glance at Lance. He almost wanted to start a fight again - he would have, if he hadn’t been in the company of Shiro. They couldn’t keep going like this! He hadn’t even spent a full day with Keith and he could already feel himself going insane!

Now was not the time for discussions though, something that Shiro seemed to share his opinion on. He nodded and his eyes were slipping closed again.

“Oh no! You are staying awake!” Lance exclaimed. Keith shot him the dirtiest look up to date. 

“He is _injured_ , Lance-”

“Nope, he is _recovering_  and that means he has to drink at least a little water before he can keep sweating out the fever. If I had known that he’d wake up I’d have prepared a little soup but for now water will have to make do.”

Surprisingly enough Keith nodded at him after a moment of hesitation. “Can you sit up?” he asked Shiro.

“Maybe?” 

Keith grabbed Shiro’s shoulders - a lot more mindful about his Galra claws than he had been earlier this day with _Lance’s_ shoulder, that asshole - and helped him straighten himself. Lance used the water from his hands to make Shiro drink a little. After three gulps Shiro shifted in Keith’s hold. 

“Why are you so wet?”

Lance exchanged a look with him. He didn’t want to stress Shiro out about them not getting along. 

“I was… getting some water from the ocean. For Lance. There… was a wave.” Lance nodded eagerly to show his support. 

Shiro smiled weakly. “He can probably dry you off, right?”

They exchanged another look. “I can,” Lance affirmed, willing Keith to just accept the offer already.

Reluctantly Keith sighed. “Alright, yeah, he can… he can do that later. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Once again Shiro’s eyes were slipping closed again. “It’s good…”

“What is good?” Keith prompted.

“…to see you guys getting along…”

And then he was asleep again. The silence between Lance and Keith was decidedly awkward.

“Alright, just… put him down again. And I’ll dry you off now, whether you want me to or not, Shiro _expects_ me to.”

“Fine, fine,” Keith said, most definitely annoyed by the situation. Lance didn’t even wait for him to put Shiro down, he just put his hand on his arm and started extracting the water from his clothes.

Keith gasped and made a surprised face. It was the most innocent expression he had worn so far, Lance thought.

“What?”, he asked.

“Your eyes…”

Lance blinked. Then he popped a grin. “Pretty cool, huh? People tend to like it a little too much so I usually close them whenever I do magic. The closing my eyes thing also helps me concentrating better.” As soon as Lance had finished extracting the water from Keith’s clothes the blue glow of his eyes subsided. “I don’t actually know how or why they do that and why they never do it when I use magic on myself.” He wiggled his fingers around to show how the water still surrounded his hands like a second skin. 

Keith nodded slowly. “So… when do they… glow? Making water float around doesn’t make them do it?”

Lance shrugged. “Sometimes. If the amount of water is big enough. I think it’s shows that the water that I’m currently using is not really a part of me yet. If it’s like this,” Lance wiggled his fingers again, “the water listens to me like… I don’t know, just like how my arms listen to me. If I take small amounts of water and move them through the air it’s fine, too. But as soon as I share it with you or Shiro or give it elaborate commands or have to concentrate because it’s a lot to lift they start glowing like this. Maybe it’s intended to be a warning signal that I don’t have my water completely under control?”

Keith snorted at that. “That would be a pretty shitty warning signal. If anything it makes me want to approach you.”

“I can’t help it that danger makes me more beautiful,” Lance smirked.

And Keith? Keith rolled his eyes, but he actually _grinned back._

_Maybe_ , just maybe he wasn’t as much of an asshole as Lance had originally thought. His grin looked kind of terrifying but hey, that wasn't his fault. Maybe they could even get along from now on! Even if Keith had totally rolled his eyes.

“Uh, hey, about earlier… that was kind of shitty of me,” Lance admitted. “Sorry,” he added quickly when he realized that he had almost missed the point of saying it.

Keith shrugged. “Yeah, it was shitty. Don’t do it again.”

Lance waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Keith never said anything else.

“That’s it? Am I seriously going to be the only one that apologizes here? That apology wasn’t just for the tub thing, it was also for shutting you up and pinning you against a tree and being insensitive during dinner! Don’t you think you owe me something yourself?” This wasn’t really happening, right? Just when he had been ready to rethink his opinion about Keith?

But Keith just cocked his head. “Do you think so?”

“Uh, _yes?!”_ Lance bristled.

That’s when Keith finally let out a laugh and Lance realized he had been teasing all along. What a fucking ass. “Alright, alright, sorry. For, uh, screaming at you. And kicking you. And… being insensitive during dinner?” Lance nodded heavily. _Especially_ for being insensitive during dinner.

For a moment there was nothing but silence between them, the room dark and cool, then there was the faint sound of a crashing wave that could be heard through the still open window. Lance took one look at the brightness of the sky and figured that they only had around four hours left until the sun would rise again. He trained his eyes back onto Keith. 

“I take it that you’ll want to sleep here?” At Keith’s nod, Lance continued. “You already know where the blankets are, I put them back. Take some and make the floor a little more comfortable, I don’t really think the walls make a good bed. I’ll get you two bowls and a cloth, Shiro still has fever, make sure to cool his head a little throughout the night.”

The both of them set off, each one gathering his stuff and Lance returned to a room that was practically covered in blankets. “Dude, how many did you get?!”

Keith looked up from where he had started to folding them into neat piles, obviously trying to create a fluffy surface. He took one look around as if he just then noticed the state of the room. “A lot?” he offered.

Lance snorted. “Yeah, I can see that much.” He set both of the bowls on the ground next to the door, as far away from the blanket mess as possible. “I’ll over be in my room if Shiro’s condition worsens or if you need more water. Apart from that I want no interruptions, my precious sleeping schedule is already messed up enough as it is.”

He turned around and left, not offering any help with the blankets since he already knew he would get refused, only stopping to close the door behind him. He was halfway to his own room when he added “oh and close the blinds unless you want to get woken up by the sun glaring straight into your eyes!” 

There was no response but he could hear the blinds getting shut so he figured his message reached Keith.

Yawning Lance made his way to his own bed, not bothering to close the door, blinds or even change out of his clothes. He passed out immediately. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um. Thanks for reading...


	3. Getting Started

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just Lance and Keith passing some time. Pidge shows up at one point too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> t he fuck why are my chapters so long i don't wanna ;A;

That night Keith learned that Galra needed less sleep than humans to function normally. They also apparently had some kind of internal clock that made him able to wake up every two hours to check on Shiro - for a tiny moment Keith allowed himself to be glad that he was a Galra. As soon as the thought really caught up with him, he pushed it far, far away though. He hated the Galra. He didn’t want to be one. He _wasn’t_ a Galra.

Shiro woke up only once during the night. It wasn’t for long, but Keith managed to assure that Shiro really felt mostly fine and got him to drink the entire bowl of water Lance had left him. The fever hadn't broken but it also hadn't gotten worse, so Keith had managed to restrain himself from marching over to the magician and demanding him to heal Shiro _again_ , properly this time.

When he woke up next, it was morning again. There was a tiny ray of light that found its way through the blinds, illuminating the space between his blankets and the bed. Keith could hear the sounds of waves crashing and some annoying birds screaming.

Also singing. There definitely was singing.

Horrendous singing.

Figuring that it was Lance, Keith decided it was time to get up. He should shut him up as fast as possible. Besides there was no use wasting time in here when he could be out there helping. Maybe actual helping this time. He couldn’t help but still feel angry at Lance for making him clean a stinking algae tank. Disgusting. And the ocean had been flat out _freezing_.

Keith kicked his blanket off quickly and crawled over to Shiro. He was still flushed, but breathed regularly for now. With a sigh Keith exchanged the hot, damp cloth on his forehead for a cool one before heading out of their room. 

“Lance?”

The off-key singing stopped. “Keith? Is that you?”

Keith followed the voice into the kitchen. “Shiro isn’t-” Lance was on the other side of the room, standing next to a deep, wooden barrel and threw something into it. Something tiny and white that almost looked like sand, except not really because it was… bigger than that. And more flaky? Whatever it was, Lance seemed to be pretty content with watching it sailing into the barrel.

The fuck.

“...Shiro isn’t what?” Keith shook himself out of his stupor.

“What are you _doing?”_ he asked. Lance blinked, then looked back at the barrel.

“Feeding my jellyfish?”

“What- you were _serious_ about having pet jellyfish?!” Keith couldn’t keep the flabbergasted tone from shining through his voice. Who in their right mind kept pet jellyfish? 

Not that Lance had ever been in his right mind, now that he thought about it.

“Uh, yeah?! They are pretty and fun to look at!” he defended himself. Keith pressed his lips together as he regarded the barrel. Lance… really made no sense at times.

“You can’t even see them in there.”

“Excuse you? You can totally see them if you come look at them from above!I keep them there because they like the dark! And I can totally lift them out of this prison at night and let them float around, they like that!”

The only things that Keith gathered from his words was that Lance kept pet jellyfish and liked to take them for a walk around the house. “Sounds…” _freaky. Weird. Absurd. Fucking ridiculous._ “…cool,” he settled on. Nobody could say he wasn’t making an effort.

Lance was not convinced. 

“They are plenty cool! Just because _you_ lack the ability to appreciate beauty-”

“Hey!”

“-it doesn’t mean that _other people_ won’t enjoy it! Both Pidge and Hunk love them and I am positive that Shiro will love them, too!”

Shiro probably really would love them. He had always had a weak point for both weird and obscure things. A jellyfish lantern? Got both of them. 

“Shiro’s fever didn’t break,” Keith said, suddenly remembering what he had wanted to talk about earlier. Lance placed a lid upon the barrel and moved towards him, picking up a bowl on the way.

“Yeah, I figured as much. It probably won’t break for another three days or something, his body is exhausted after battling an injury and infection of this caliber. That plus the magical healing…” He grimaced.

Keith was alarmed. “Is a magical healing harmful to the body?” He had thought Shiro was safe for now but if he wasn’t… the fear Keith had had become intimately acquainted with over the past few days began to creep back into his bones.

Lance shot him a quizzical look. “If it was harmful, would it be considered healing?”

“If drinking water is healthy, then wouldn’t drowning be considered healthy?” Keith fired back. Lance was seemingly caught off guard by that.

“Y-yeah, well, but healing isn’t the same as drowning.”

“Which is why I was asking in the first place.” He had won this argument and the glare Lance shot his way only confirmed it.

“You - _ugh_. It’s not harmful,” he finally grumbled. “It’s just that it uses a lot of energy as it accelerates the growth of tissue and stuff. It’s not natural, so the body is still confused and essentially trying to battle an infection that isn’t there anymore.”

Despite knowing next to nothing about medicine Keith had to admit that it made sense. “So there’s nothing to worry about?” he rephrased his earlier question.

Lance shuffled a bit, moving the bowl from his right to his left hand. He looked vaguely uncomfortable. “There shouldn’t be. If the fever doesn’t break by the end of the week I’ll have to look over him again though. For now he should just rest a lot and try to eat and drink. We should check up on him regularly.” 

As if Keith hadn’t planned on doing that anyway. 

Lance cleared his throat and held up the bowl. “Anyway, is he awake right now? I made him some soup. He’ll need something to help him get stronger… I also mixed some antipyretic herbs into it. Just in case.”

Well, what do you know. It appeared that Lance actually did have a clue about what he was doing. Thinking back to the other day, Keith realized that despite Lance acting childish and immature with startling regularity he also knew a lot about medicine. And that included treating wounded and sick people. He had pretty much brought Shiro back from the dead, so he could trust him with treating a fever as well. Probably. 

“He was still asleep when I got up. He woke up once though, asking for water. I made him drink the entire bowl.”

Lance lit up at that and made his way out of the kitchen towards Shiro's room. 

“Where are you going? I just said he wasn’t awake!” Keith called after him.

“Just getting the bowl! Be right back, see if you can find something to eat for yourself!”

For a split second Keith considered listening to Lance and start looking for food. He was hungry, a lot even, after Lance’s disastrous attempt at a friendly dinner yesterday he hadn’t eaten anything. But the kitchen was huge and he didn’t accidentally want to start eating medical herbs that… who knows, he might accidentally poison himself or something. He didn’t know much about that kind of stuff. So he followed Lance back to Shiro instead.

When he arrived, Lance stood with his back to the door and was once again pressing his water coated hands to Shiro’s stump. The skin was almost completely healed by now, the only indication that he was supposed to have two arms was a tiny patch of pink skin right in the middle of the wound. It was impressive, to say the least - had someone told Keith that just a day ago Shiro would heal this much within a day he would have called them insane. He wasn’t even sure whether the Galran medicine would have been able to heal him this quickly.

Lance lifted his hands from the wound and started gathering the now useless bandages. “You almost died, you fucking idiot,” Keith heard him whisper, obviously not aware that Keith had followed him here. “Why didn’t you come here sooner?”

Silently, Keith agreed with him. Shiro's overprotective nature would cost him his life someday.

Lance kept standing next to the bed for a few seconds, silently staring down at Shiro. Then he let out a sigh and took up Keith’s old, bloodstained shirt that he had totally forgotten about. He leaned over to touch Shiro one last time, his eyes briefly flashing blue as he collected and threw the sweat on Shiro’s body away. He then took up the empty bowl that Keith had used to cool Shiro’s forehead during the night - Keith though that Lance probably didn’t even notice that the water was still flowing around his hands - and turned to leave.

Lance screamed when he saw Keith standing in the door. Keith startled and turned around, prepared to fight whatever was behind him. His hand automatically went for his knife, his legs spread, muscles tense and senses on high alert.

There was nothing behind him.

Lance let out a flustered noise. “ _God_ , _Keith_ , I _told_ you to stay in the kitchen and get some food! You just gave me a heart attack!”

“You didn’t even tell me what stuff in there is edible-”

“Lance?” 

Both men stopped squabbling and turned around to Shiro, who was currently blinking against the light and trying and sit up. “What’s going on, are we being attacked, do I need to-”

Lance whirled around and let go of the bowl. Keith jumped forward just fast enough to catch it before it could fall to the floor and break, wincing when he noticed that his hand was still sore from the damage it had taken when he had accidentally crushed Shiro’s cup back in their shack. He shot Lance a dark look. Maybe he could ask the idiot to take a look at his hand once Shiro was back asleep. Keith wasn’t a fan of asking for help, but he couldn’t afford not being able to use his hands to his full potential. Just the thought about accidentally dropping his knife in a fight because of some stupid shreds that might still be stuck under his skin already made him feel angry.

Lance’s babbling brought him back from his thoughts. “No, no, everything is fine, your Galra buddy just decided not to listen to me and scare the crap out of me instead.”

“It’s not my fault that you didn’t complete your instructions!” Keith spoke before Shiro could make any comment about him still not having shifted back into his human form. When Shiro had woken up during the night he had barely been conscious enough to drink some water and Keith hadn’t yet had the opportunity to tell him about the curse. And he really didn’t want Lance to find out about his… situation.

“I am pretty sure that part of my instructions was to _stay in the kitchen-_ ”

Shiro’s chuckle interrupted him. “I thought you were getting along, you two?” Somehow he seemed entertained at their behavior. Before Keith could answer that actually, yeah, they kind of did, sometimes, _when Lance wasn’t being a total ass_ , Lance jerked a thumb at him.

“With this guy? Not really. He just insulted my pet jellyfish!”

“They are pet jellyfish!” Keith exclaimed exasperatedly. 

“And they are beautiful!” Lance insisted, jutting his lip out.

“You keep them in a wooden barrel in the back of your kitchen! You take them for walks around the house!”

“They _like_ that!” Lance waved his hands around and Keith had to suppress his urge to catch and force them down. “I care for my pets! There is nothing wrong with that!”

“They are _jellyfish!”_ Why couldn’t he see how ridiculous this whole thing was?!

Once again it was Shiro’s chuckle that interrupted the two of them. “You should show them to me next time you take them on a walk.”

_“Don’t encourage him!”_ Keith was surrounded by idiots. Lance beamed.

“I will! I’ll introduce them to you!” 

They had _names?!_ How did one even differentiate jellyfish?! How was Lance even real?!

But Keith kept his mouth shut this time, he wouldn’t start another argument about jellyfish. Enough was enough. “You should eat the soup,” he said instead and gestured to the tiny bowl that Lance had left on the floor next to the bed. With a little coaxing they managed to get Shiro to eat half the bowl before he fell asleep again.

The rest of the day passed silently, mostly. Keith spent pretty much all of his time next to Shiro’s bed, only getting up when Lance called for him or when he had to relieve himself. Lance had placed a spell on Shiro’s forehead that kept cool water on it without Keith having to change stripes of cloth every so often. Keith wondered frequently how the water would feel to touch it. He wasn’t about to accidentally break the spell though, so he kept his hands to himself. At one point Shiro was awake and lucid enough to have a longer lasting conversation with Keith and he actually managed to tell him about the curse - he blocked any questions on what he was planning to do now though.

He didn’t know.

He didn’t know, he didn’t know, he didn’t know. He was still scared.

He told Shiro not to worry and rest instead.

Before long it was nighttime again and Keith felt himself growing restless. He had been pretty much just sitting around all day and he was getting seriously hungry again. Lance’s soup for lunch hadn’t exactly been the most filling food of all time, so he made his way towards the kitchen. When he entered, he was shocked to find everything covered by books.

“What is going on in here?!”

Lance lifted his head from whatever text he was currently reading and flushed after realizing how many books he had strewn around the kitchen. “I’m reading?”

“I can see that,” Keith replied and curiously touched the book next to him. He couldn’t read: he remembered his mother starting to teach him a little but she had died before Keith had really had the opportunity to master it. “What’s it about?”

Lance shrugged and went back to his text. “Magic.”

_“Obviously.”_ But he didn’t get any other information, so he added: “You are a nerd, aren’t you.” The reaction was instant. Trust Lance to only react to taunts. 

“Am not!”

“ _So_ are.”

_“Am not!_ I just enjoy doing… cool stuff!”

Keith arched an eyebrow. “Like reading?” Lance flushed and closed his book.

“Yes, like reading! Learning useful stuff! Broadening my mind! Opening new, unknown possibilities, all of that!”

Another look at the book next to him confirmed that Keith really wasn’t able to read anything. He let go of it. “Alright, once you’re finished with ‘opening new, unknown possibilities’, can we start making dinner? I’m hungry.”

Grumbling under his breath, Lance began to close the books and stack them onto each other. Keith watched with fascination as the piles grew and grew until there were at least ten of them, each one as tall as Lance’s upper part of the body. They were blocking the table though and he had to start lifting them to the ground despite them obviously being too heavy for his lanky form.

_So_ totally a nerd.

“You prepare food, I’ll move the books?” Keith suggested. Lance almost looked as if he wanted to protest but then thought better of it. 

“Alright, whatever, just don’t cut them with your brute claws.” 

Keith gritted his teeth and reminded himself that technically Lance wasn’t wrong and he really shouldn’t raise to such a stupid bait and got to work instead. Fortunately they really were easy to lift for him, he managed to place all the weight on his right hand and used his left one only to steady them. Placing any kind of weight on it at all still hurt. He should just ask Lance to take a look at it already. 

Once he had moved all the books to the ground, he sat down at the table and watched Lance prepare food. The man didn’t really seem to care what he was doing, he was just throwing some dried meat into a pot and added a few of the herbs that hung everywhere. Keith had noticed that Lance wasn’t exactly the best cook around but his food was edible so he wouldn’t complain. He couldn’t do much better either.

After stirring the pot a few times, Lance seemed to be satisfied and joined Keith at the table. 

“So, how’s Shiro?” he questioned.

“Still feverish. He didn’t wake up again since you managed to feed him the medicine earlier.” 

“Yeah, I figured as much,” Lance replied and silence settled over them. Now was a good time as any.

“Can you help me with that?” Keith asked and extended his right hand. Lance jerked back a little, an instinctive reaction, and Keith tried to not let it get to him too much. He looked like a Galra after all, had a Galra suddenly thrust his hand at him his reaction would have probably been much the same.

Still, it weirdly hurt somehow. He wasn't a threat. He wasn't a monster.

_He wasn't._

Lance grimaced at Keith. “Can you please warn me before you shove your mini daggers at me? I really like my face the way it is, thank you.”

“I wasn’t _shoving_ anything anywhe- whatever, can you just look at my hand already? Please?” He hadn’t really wanted to add the ‘please’ but he had to get Lance to listen somehow.

And Lance did, albeit reluctantly. He squinted his eyes at Keith’s hand, carefully taking it between his. “Is it swollen or something? It’s so hard to tell on your purplish skin, how did you-” Lance’s eyes widened. “Wait, are these cuts?”

“Yeah.” Keith sighed. “It was an accident from before I brought Shiro here. Nothing important.”

“Nothing important my ass. Are these splinters?” Lance prodded against something and Keith violently tugged his hand back. That _hurt_. Asshole. He was sure that he was looking at Lance with venom in his eyes but the magician just pulled his hand back to inspect it further. “They so are. Why didn’t you say something earlier?!”

Keith kept silent as he watched Lance walk over to the window and shout some commands. Only moments later a wobbling sphere of water rushed over to him, all the way from the ocean. 

Honestly, Keith didn’t think he’d ever get used to seeing water act this way.

Lance was at ease though as he let part of it morph around his hands and approached Keith again. His touch was cool and… not wet, weirdly enough. The water felt silky like velvet, flowing over his skin but not catching onto anything. It was a nice feeling and Keith felt himself relaxing into the touch.

Then Lance got to work and closed his eyes. Keith resisted the urge to ask him to keep his eyes open so that he could stare at them again and concentrated on the unnatural feeling of water flowing around his hand instead.

At first there wasn’t much of anything. Just the water cooling his heated skin, Lance was obviously trying to get an insight on the damage. 

“Sorry, this is going to hurt now,” he then said suddenly. A sharp, blinding pain got Keith to tug his hand out of Lance’s grasp. Lance opened his eyes again and glowered at Keith. “I can’t heal you if you take your hand away!”

“Why does it hurt so much?!” Keith demanded to know. Protectively cradling his hand to his chest, he contemplated just leaving it as it was. He had already survived one day like this, he could survive another one.

Lance huffed. “Because you are an idiot and didn’t even take the pieces of whatever this is out of your hand!” He waved a single shard of Shiro’s cup around that he apparently had managed to extract. “Your Galra skin is weird, it has already half healed itself. I’ll basically have to rip it open to get your splinters out and close it again.”

That… didn’t sound too good.

“Can’t we just leave them in there?” Keith asked miserably. It wasn’t really an option though, he knew that much. He might _actually_ drop his knife in a fight and then what would become of them?

“And risk you cutting yourself open over and over from within? Risk your body staring to dissolve these things and absorb them and fuck up some part of your weird Galra-anatomy? Nuh-uh, not gonna happen, not under my watch.”

“Well, can't you just make it hurt less?!” There was something running down his arm. A quick glance affirmed that yes, it was blood, not water. Lance really had opened his skin again. 

“Well… _technically_ … if you had asked me to heal you earlier…” Lance drawled. Keith swore he could feel a vein pop at his temple. 

“Lance!”

“If you had told me about this yesterday I might have been nice enough to block your nerves - but since you didn’t you gotta deal with the conseque-”

_“Lance!”_

Lance laughed. That _fucking_ asshole. “Alright, alright, I can block your nerves. Most people don’t enjoy it though since you can’t feel your hand anymore. At all. It’s honestly a weird feeling.”

“I don’t _care_ ,” Keith gritted out, “just do it already.” He could deal with having a ghost hand for a few minutes. That was better than being in pain.

Lance shrugged and made grabby hands in his direction. Slowly Keith placed his hand in between Lance’s, eyes never leaving his face to make sure to pull back at the slightest notion of a joke. But Lance’s grin faded when he closed his eyes and the water was back, taking Keith’s blood with it. 

And suddenly there was no hand anymore.

Keith looked down to assure himself that his hand was still there. It was. He tried wiggling his fingers and his hand complied - but there was no feeling. It was as if he was giving commandos to someone else's hand.

“If you keep moving your hand I’ll have to block your muscles too and that’s when it’ll get really freaky,” Lance’s voice ripped him out of his thought. Keith immediately stilled his movements and focused on Lance’s face instead. It was slack, completely relaxed and didn’t betray even the barest hint of emotion.

It was… actually kind of pretty like that. Huh, what do you know. Not that it mattered at all, he reminded himself.

“Hey Lance, can you still hear me?” Keith asked before he could tell his curiosity to shut up. Lance looked so relaxed, it was hard to tell whether he was aware of what was going on around him.

“Just fine,” Lance answered. His face still didn’t betray anything. It was almost as creepy as watching his hand but not even half as interesting - even if he was, admittedly, more than just a little pretty - so he lowered his gaze to observe the water again.

There was no supernatural glow from it, nothing. There were just Lances hands, holding his own, except not really because the water surrounding them was the only thing touching his hands. Every now and then Lance had to move his upper hand because shards made their ways out of his hand almost out of their own accord before some water placed them on the table next to the first one. Keith had to admit that it was fascinating to watch, even if the knowledge that it was his hand that Lance was taking apart left him feeling a little queasy. 

“Alright, that was the last one. I’ll just clean the cuts now and stitch them up.” Lance shifted his hands again so that he was completely covering Keith’s hand from his view and nothing happened for a while. Then his feeling suddenly returned, the coolness of the water startling him a bit, before Lance completely let go of his hands.

Keith lifted his head and saw that the grin was back on Lance’s face. “Here you go, now thank the master on your knees for your hand is as good as new!”

Keith gave him a flat stare. “What master?”

“Keith! I’ll let you know that I can easily rip your skin open again!” At Lance’s hands reaching once more for his own, Keith scooted back with his chair as far as possible.

“Yeah. No. But…” Lance deserved a thank you. He had healed his hand in the end, even if he was being an ass about it. “Thanks, I guess.”

Apparently satisfied with that Lance got up, once again forgetting about the water on his hands. Keith wondered to himself wether he unconsciously wore it around like gloves when no one was there to see it. 

“This is finished, too. Great, let’s eat, now that your hand sucked my energy away I totally deserve some food.”

“My hand did no such thing,” Keith claimed. It was the magic and they both knew it. Lance waved an arm around, dismissing the statement. 

“No, no, it definitely did. Probably your Galra body, it just can’t help but wanting to absorb any life energy it gets its hands on.”

It was a joke, Keith reminded himself. Besides it was just his body. His cursed body. He didn't want to kill anyone. He wasn’t… he wasn’t like that.

The image of a little girl flashed through his mind.

_He wasn’t like that._

“Keith?” 

Keith flinched and came back to reality. Lance was staring at him, face annoyed. “You didn’t listen to anything I said, did you?”

He didn’t. Lance sighed. “I said we should go eat this with Shiro. That way he has company if he wakes up.”

“That’s- yeah, that’s a good plan. Let’s do it.” Keith turned away so that Lance wouldn’t see his hands shaking. He wasn’t quite ready to address anything that happened the day he broke into the castle, especially not to Lance. If Lance noticed, he never said anything.

Dinner passed in silence. Shiro did wake up near the end of it and they managed to feed him a little more soup but then the fever took him back under. Keith clung to Lance’s words that it has only been two days now and that this was a totally normal reaction, locking his worries away into a dark, far away corner.

 

* * *

 

That night, sleep was restless.

Keith had too much energy and he knew that he would go insane if he spent the next day just like he had spent this one. He started planning out a training routine before he noticed that his Galra body had significantly other limits than his human one. He might not be as tall as other Galras but he was still taller than before and he was _a lot_ stronger. He’d have to test everything out before he could get started on planning training routines.

When morning came and with it Lance’s terrible, off-key singing, Keith was on his feet and in the kitchen in no time at all. 

“Can you keep an eye on Shiro today?”

Lance let out a girlish scream and almost dropped his bread. Heh. Keith would have to do that more often.

“I- you- you can’t just do that!” Lance exclaimed and placed a hand on his chest. “God, I swear I just lost twenty years of my life.”

“Yeah, you’re already getting wrinkles,” Keith agreed. The mortified expression he got in response was totally worth it.

“I do not have wrinkles! _I do not!”_

Keith laughed. 

_“I do not!”_ Lance repeated vehemently. He didn’t waste a second to raise the water out of his cup on the table, spreading it out in the air to use it as a mirror. There was no way he had wrinkles, Keith didn’t understand why he worried so much about that, but couldn’t deny it was entertaining anyway. Lance was an idiot.

Lance was also pissed, it seemed.

“You-” he said and pointed an accusing finger at Keith. Keith just raised an eyebrow. “-are an ass! I can’t believe I actually cleaned your shirt for you! I go through all that effort and you pay be back by stealing my lifetime and making me worry-”

“Effort? The whole thing probably took you around two seconds,” Keith interrupted. His black shirt was spread out on the table, clean and dry as ever. Not bothering with leaving the kitchen to change, he pulled Lance’s borrowed shirt off and his own one on. He never would have imagined that simply wearing his own clothes would feel so good, even if they were a little tight. He didn't like having to wear _Lance's_ stuff.

“Well duh, that’s because I’m awesome, but I still wasted two seconds of my time to clean your stuff-”

“Do you really want to go there?”

There was a moment of silence in which they both remembered the unfortunate moment of Keith cleaning the tub - and the algae tank - in the ocean. He was still shivering from the memory alone.

“…I already apologized for that,” Lance mumbled but dropped the topic.

Keith sighed. “Back to the point, can you keep an eye on Shiro today? I want to try out some stuff. My… my new limits and all that.” He carefully held his tone as neutral as possible, not showing just how uncomfortable he was. He didn’t need Lance’s pity.

“Uh… sure I can. I’ll just move the books over there. You want breakfast before you leave?”

Keith considered it for a moment, then he shook his head. He wouldn’t stray far from the house, he wanted to be close in case anything happened and he could always return when he got hungry. And he was desperate to _move_ already. Lance seemed to sense his impatience and made a shooing motion in direction of the door. Keith took his leave. 

As soon as he was outside he breathed the fresh sea breeze in. Finally. Air. He stretched himself a bit, then got started with everything he wanted to try out.

Not sure where to begin exactly, he did some squads. When he reached 500 and didn’t even begin to feel tired, he changed to push ups. More squads. Sit ups. As time passed and he didn’t grew any tireder at all, he decided to try something else. 

Making his way towards the forest, he chose a tiny tree and tried to pull it out of the ground. It followed without much resistance. Alright then, next one. 

This time he he went straight for one of the bigger trees. For a moment he just stood there, thinking about how insane this actually was - the tree was huge. He wasn’t even sure whether his hands would touch one another if he wrapped his arms around the trunk. 

Well, he was about to find out.

His mind made up, Keith wrapped himself around the tree. He could feel his claws just barely grazing one another and then he _pulled_.

At first there was nothing, but then he felt the earth moving beneath his feet. Forcing himself to pull even harder, he tried to uproot the tree. It took him a few attempts and a break but then he held a gigantic tree in his arms and tried desperately not to slip on the sandy, moving earth. The roots of the tree were gigantic themselves, he would probably leave a huge crater in the ground. 

Manoeuvring himself a bit, Keith managed to place the tree onto the ground without doing too much damage to the other trees around him. He had managed to pull it out… but what was he supposed to do with it now?

Whatever, he could use it for more strength training.

Not sure how to start, he climbed over the trunk and looked at it from the other side. He could try to kick and punch it. It wasn’t as if he had any better ideas. Keith vaguely remembered seeing a fireplace in Lance’s house so he could probably use some burning material. 

For the next few hours Keith was kicking and punching and ripping at the tree, effectively tearing it into tiny pieces that could fit into a fireplace. He knew that there was way more wood than they would need but he could _feel_ his muscles singing in relief upon being used again, so he wasn’t about to stop anytime soon. 

When he returned for lunch - apparently he had skipped breakfast, huh, time sure flew fast - Lance wasn’t in the kitchen. However, Keith had seen him cooking often enough now to know where he stored the edible stuff. He grabbed himself some bread and dried meat before making his way over to Shiro's room. He was very hungry but Lance would probably get started on the real food soon. For now he would check up on Shiro and ask Lance where to put the firewood. 

Shiro was asleep when he arrived. Surprisingly enough, so was Lance: the man was passed out on a book in front of him, drooling all over it. Curling his lips in distaste, Keith shook him awake.

“Lance. Lance! Come on, wake up.”

Lance groaned and swatted his hand away. “‘m sleepy…”

“I know, but you can’t sleep here. Besides, you were supposed to take care of Shiro.” Keith frowned.

At the mention of Shiro’s name, Lance finally raised his head. A page from the book stuck to his cheek and Keith was surprised to note that he found it oddly endearing. It must be the heat getting to him.

“Shiro?!” When Lance’s gaze fell on the sleeping man, he sank back onto the book. “He’s asleep. Lemme sleep too.”

Keith was having none of that. “Get up, lazy ass. He’s ill, you have to pay attention to him!”

“But Keith, he’s sleeping!” Lance whined. 

“Are you always this annoying when you wake up from a nap?”

“Shut up, I’m still suffering from magical exhaustion!” Despite his words Lance slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. Finally noticing the drool on his face, he quickly wiped it away. Then he turned to Keith and squinted at him.

“Weren’t you supposed to be gone for today?” 

Rolling his eyes, Keith took a bite from the bread. “I was. I got hungry, so I came back. I’ll leave again after lunch though, there’s simply nothing to do here.” Lance squinted some more, then he extended a hand towards him. Keith frowned at it. “What?”

“You’re all sweaty. I’ll take it away?”

Keith flushed but allowed Lance to place his hand on his leg. Soon enough he felt the weird sensation of water gliding over his skin, Lance’s eyes flashing in that amazing blue color again, then it was over. Instead, there was a tiny sphere of water floating next to him. Lance looked mildly impressed.

“You should probably go drink something. Last time I sweated that much was when I finished repairing the roof after a bad storm. That was one year ago, in case you didn’t know.”

“How would I have known?” Keith asked grumpily but his words carried no malice. He was simply embarrassed at Lance’s remark. Thankfully Lance didn’t pick up on it, he just shrugged and threw Keith’s sweat out of the window. 

“How is he?” Keith asked, nodding his head at Shiro. Lance followed his gaze, then sighed.

“Same as yesterday.”

Keith accepted the answer and kept eating his pre-lunch. It took Lance a few moments to grow tired of watching him and going back to his books. After Keith was finished with his bread and meat, he pestered him into making some real lunch and stocked up on Lance’s firewood in return.

The rest of the day Keith spend running around the house in wide circles. The sand slowed him down and tired him out, which was exactly what he needed right now. At one point he brought more of the wood into the house and piled it next to the fireplace, at another point he checked up on a sleeping Shiro. Mostly Keith just kept running, ignoring Lance whenever he heard him shouting insults at him.

When nighttime rolled around, Keith barely managed to eat something before going to his room and passing out. The last thing he remembered that day were unnaturally blue eyes, swirling like the ocean and burning from within, calmly looking down at him.

 

* * *

 

Keith only woke up three times that night. Shiro was always asleep but when he got up the next morning, he noticed that the cup of water had been emptied. A small smile graced his lips as he crawled over and cradled it between his hands. Shiro was well enough to move and get his water from the floor, it was definitely progress.

Carefully not to wake or scrape him with his claws, Keith pressed his hand against Shiro’s neck. Lance’s weird water spell still covered his forehead so he couldn’t use it to determine his temperature. His neck didn’t feel too different from yesterday though, so it was safe to assume he was still feverish. The ever present flush on his cheeks just confirmed that.

For a few moments Keith sat next to Shiro, watching him sleep. He had thought that he had lost him. He had never been as scared as he had been a few days ago and he knew he wouldn’t get over the memory of Shiro’s ashen, lifeless face any time soon. It was engraved into his mind, just as the image of himself stabbing the little-

Clenching his teeth, Keith got up. He didn’t want to think about that.

“Come back soon, Shiro. I miss you,” he whispered at him. 

_“WHEN THE BIIIRDS ARE SINGING AND THE WAAAVES ARE CRASHING AND THE SUUUUN IS STINGING I WAKE UUUUP LOOKING DASHING-”_

Way to ruin the moment, Lance. 

It was time to do the world a favour and shut him up.

Keith left for the kitchen, intent on throwing his cup against Lance’s head. His songs only got worse each morning. He was probably doing it on purpose, that ass.

“Would you just shut the fuck up?!” Keith yelled. Sadly, Lance didn’t seem surprised to hear his voice this time. He flung some water out of the window and sent him a brilliant smile.

“Morning Keith! Slept well? What are your plans for today?”

“To sew your mouth shut,” Keith grumbled.

“That’s a terrible plan. My older brother used to tell me gruelling stories about an evil guy sneaking into my room at night and sewing it shut if I was too loud during the day. I couldn’t sleep for days after I heard it.”

“You have a brother?” The thought distracted Keith briefly from planning out Lance’s death. Lance lived alone in a house by the sea and despite talking a lot, about his magic, hobbies, sometimes even his friends, he had never once mentioned a family. Much less siblings.

There was a strained silence as if Lance just now realized what he had told Keith. The multitude of emotions passing over his face was too confusing for Keith to keep up with. “Yeah. I do,” Lance admitted finally, smiling sadly.

Keith decided not to push it.

“I was planning on running a little more today. Maybe get some more wood. Clean the tub again?”

Lance started laughing. “Clean the tub again? I thought I traumatized you that day!”

“Yeah, well. I’m bored and I’m not much of a reader so there really isn’t anything to do here,” Keith shrugged. 

“Still! Clean the tub?” Lance was still shaking with silent laughter. Keith had half a mind to glower at him but he honestly didn’t care. “Well, if you are so bored you could help me with my potions,” he suggested then.

With the potions?

Keith couldn’t deny that he was intrigued. He remembered Lance saying something about brewing potions for his ‘daily walks’ but ever since Shiro was ill he hadn’t left the house at all. 

“Are you sure I’m not gonna mess up your amazing work?” Keith teased.

“I pride myself on being a pretty good teacher. But you…” Lance pulled an exaggerated grimace. “It will be hard for sure but with some luck… maybe...”

Asshole.

Keith send him a glare but only got a self-satisfied smirk in return. “Too scared to try?”

“Like hell I am.”

“Prove it!”

And alright, maybe Keith really shouldn’t have taken Lance’s challenge all that literal but that didn’t stop him from setting Shiro’s bowl down onto the table and grab some random herbs. Lance laughed, then hip checked him out of the way. “Alright, move over, we're not doing this here. I need to redo some potions and those are the ones that need to be heated so we’ll need to be closer to the fireplace.” He gestured to the other side of the room to another table that was closer to the barrel of jellyfish. Keith shrugged and carried his herbs over there. Lance followed soon after, at least ten different bowls and two knives in his hands.

“Alright! I’ll go get the herbs and spell books and you start the fire.”

“Why don’t you start the fire? Aren’t you a magician?” Much to Keith’s surprise there actually lay two firestones next to the fireplace. So Lance really didn’t…?

His question was met by silence. A gaze over his shoulder told him that Lance had crossed his arms and pouted. “Uh, Lance?” 

More pouting. “I can’t!”

“What do you mean you can’t?” Keith furrowed his brows in confusion. Human magicians were supposed to be extinct but even he had heard the stories. Every magician had area’s of strength - Lance’s was quite obviously water - but they could always use other magic as well.

“I just can’t!” Lance threw his arms in the air. “I hate fire! Fire is the worst! It doesn’t agree with me, it doesn’t listen to me, I can’t control it!”

Keith rolled his eyes at the overdramatic speech. “You don’t have to control it, Lance. You just have to produce a tiny spark and then it’ll start burning all on its own.” Keith thrust the stones against each other a few times until one of the dry branches started to catch fire. “See?”

Lance was staring at him, eyes narrowed and lips pressed together. Keith couldn’t keep his eyebrows from raising. “Are you telling me that-”

“Shut up!”

“You can’t even produce a spark? A tiny, fuzzy spark just to-”

_“I said,_ shut up!”

Keith laughed. “Wow, you are a really shitty magician! Not even a spark? Come on, Lance, it can’t be that hard-”

“No! I can’t! I have never been able to use fire magic and will probably never be! You know _nothing_ about magic, so just - shut up! Shut up!”

Shit. Keith instantly felt bad at the frustration in Lance’s voice. He hadn’t known that it was such a sensitive topic to him. 

“Uh, sorry, I didn’t mean to-”

“Do I really have to repeat myself?” Lance cut him off. Keith tightened his jaw and kept quiet. Why did they keep stumbling over things like this all the time?

The kitchen was drenched in uncomfortable silence for a few moments before Lance left to get his books. Keith sighed and crossed his arms, trying to get rid of the uneasy feeling in his stomach. He wanted to get along with Lance, he _really_ did - he had saved Shiro's life and despite being the worst singer ever he could be nice company. His laugh was nice and he was laughing often. He had healed Keith’s hand! But for some reason both of them kept crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed and the frustration about it really started to weigh him down.

When Lance returned to the table, the bad atmosphere had disappeared.

“Okay, come closer. You cut this,” he dumped a bunch of green leaves on Keith’s hands, “as small as possible. Don’t worry about the pieces looking nice, if you cut them right they should be small enough that you can’t even tell what they look like anymore. When you’re finished, put them in here.” Lance’s elbow nudged a small bowl between them. 

Slowly they began working together. Lance messed up the order of herbs one time and they had to start over but Keith couldn’t find it in him to be annoyed at him. He was talking and making jokes as usual but Keith saw the way his shoulders tensed whenever he knew that Keith was watching him approaching the fire. There was nothing he could say to make it better though, so he eventually just stopped observing Lance. The other seemed to relax a little but Keith knew that he would keep feeling bad unless he apologized properly.

How did he do that without making Lance feel uncomfortable again?

He didn’t know. He was helpless. He really wasn’t good at human interaction.

_Don’t you feel out of place with humans?_

Stop.

“So anyway, I really have neglected my daily walks now. I’ll have to go tomorrow, whether I want to or not. Besides we really need new food. Maybe we can go fishing soon?”

“Sounds good,” Keith agreed, grateful for the distraction. 

“I’ll be gone for the whole day tomorrow. I’ll take the big round and tell everyone that I won’t be coming as often as I used to for a few days and then I’ll have to visit the market…” Lance grimaced. “God, I should really prepare the tea beforehand, I can already feel the headache coming.”

“Why? What headache?” Keith asked. He hoped that he didn’t cross any lines with his question this time. 

Apparently he didn’t.

“I can’t go out looking like myself. It’s be too dangerous, if I encountered any Galra looking like this they would recognize me. So I’ll have to wear a masking spell which is made by light magic whiiiiich isn’t really my area of expertise. And if I tire myself out using too much magic I get intense headaches.” With these words he grabbed for a new bowl and let some water fly into it before throwing it least three different herbs. His movements were much quicker, he obviously had a lot of experience with this tea. Keith watched intently.

“And this mix doesn’t need any magic to work?”

“That’d kind of defy it’s purpose,” Lance answered dryly. Then he shrugged. “I really don’t know why it works so well, I’ve been asking that myself for _ages_ but none of the books I have are able to explain it either.”

Keith wanted to ask more. He wanted to know whether he had to drink it often, whether he had had to use it the day after he had healed Shiro, how he learned about the recipe in the first place. He wanted to know about where all these books came from, about why he didn’t like speaking about his inability to use fire magic, about how he found out about his magic. He wanted to know what the potions were for, what all the books were about and whether every magician's eyes became as pretty as Lance’s did when he used advanced magic. He wanted to know so much more and the intensity with which he wanted it scared him.

So he didn’t say anything.

“But back to the point,” Lance said, placing the finished tea cup on one of the cluttered shelves over the fireplace, “I’ll be gone for the whole day. I’ll have Pidge come over to help you look after Shiro.”

Keith’s eyebrows rose to a steep angle. “I don’t need any help with that.”

“She’ll be coming over anyway.” Lance’s tone made it clear that it wasn’t up for discussion. He walked around the jellyfish barrel towards a door that Keith hadn’t noticed so far and returned with lots of different flasks, handing half of them over to Keith. They began to decant the finished potions.

“But why?”

“She knows Shiro.” This bit of information made Keith freeze and turn towards Lance.

“How?!”

“I don’t really know. She has known him for longer than I have,” he confessed. Despite the whirling in Keith’s mind he noticed that there was something Lance wasn’t telling him. Both about Pidge’s visit and her connection to Shiro.

“Lance…” 

He had expected Lance to get angry or tell him to shut up again but the thing he got instead was a guilty expression. For a few moments Keith stood there, trying to figure out why Lance would look at him like this, then it hit him.

Lance didn’t trust him to be alone in his home.

The hurt must have shown on his face because Lance turned away again. It wasn’t as if Keith couldn’t understand him, they had barely known each other for four days now and he hadn’t really told Lance anything about himself but… he really wished he would trust him a little. He didn't say anything but Lance somehow understood him anyway.

“It’s not as if I don’t trust you at all! It’s just-”

He didn’t trust him completely either.

“I get it, Lance. It’s fine.”

Lance’s guilty expression didn’t fall away and neither did Keith’s hurt but they both elected to ignore it and continue working. By the time evening rolled around, they were back to joking and laughing together. With each passing moment the hurt seemed to fade until it was nothing but a dull ache in his chest that kept him awake at night despite knowing that Keith wouldn’t have acted any different. 

 

* * *

 

When Keith woke up next morning, Shiro was awake for once. Still kind of delirious, but definitely awake.

“Shiro!” he exclaimed happily and raised the cup next to the bed, only to realize that it was empty already.

Shiro laughed a little. “Hey buddy. Missed me?”

“Yeah,” he admitted openly. Shiro had always had that effect on him. “How are you feeling?”

“Hot and sweaty.” Shiro’s face scrunched up. Keith grinned.

“You kind of are. Lance regularly cleans you from the sweat and all the other gross stuff though, no worries.”

“He’s useful like that,” Shiro nodded. Keith nodded along eagerly. Anything was fine, as long as Shiro kept talking.

“Hang on, stay awake, I think there is still some left over soup in the kitchen. And some water. I’ll be right back.” He got up quickly, not even waiting for Shiro’s response and jogged to the kitchen. “Lance! Shiro’s awake!”

There was a person in the kitchen but it was most definitely not Lance. Keith dropped the bowl and went into a defensive stance, ignoring the shattering noise he heard.

The person that was previously slouched over a some pieces of wood at the kitchen table had gotten a rigid back and was now slowly raising their hands. 

“I’ll just assume that you are Keith,” they said slowly, hands still raised in surrender.

Keith narrowed his eyes, ready to question them when he suddenly remembered the conversation he had had with Lance yesterday. “You are… Pidge?” The girl nodded and Keith finally straightened himself out. “Where is Lance?”

Pidge shrugged. “He said he had a lot of stuff to do and wanted to leave at dawn. So here I am, your new babysitter, cheers!”

“Babysitter,” Keith deadpanned.

“Well, I guess _technically_ you could kill me within two seconds or less if you wanted to, but I am here to keep an eye on you so that makes me your babysitter.”

“You are a _child._ ” Okay, maybe that came out a little too condescendingly… 

Pidge raised her eyebrows. “It seems Lance was right for once, you _are_ an ass.” Keith scowled but realized that he didn’t really have any right to protest against that statement. He really hadn’t made the best first impression this time. “I am seventeen, just two summers younger than Lance. But hey, I’ll forgive you for being rude - did you say that Shiro was awake?”

Keith nodded, then took a look at the shattered bowl next to him. He’d clean it up later, for now he had to bring Shiro some food before he fell asleep again. “We need to bring him a little soup. And water.” 

“On it!” the girl chirped and made her way over to one of the cupboards. She threw Keith a bowl that he thankfully managed to catch before it could join the one on the floor, grabbed one for herself and began walking towards the fireplace. The flame was almost out but the soup in the pot was still warm enough to steam when Pidge stirred it a little. Keith filled his bowl with fresh water from the big jug in the middle of the table and gestured Pidge to follow him to Shiro’s room.

By the time they arrived, Shiro was evidently half asleep already. “Keith? ’s that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I brought some water and a visitor.” Keith moved aside to give Shiro a clearer view on Pidge.

Shiro blinked sleepily, then suddenly tore his eyes wide open. “Matt?!”

“Ah, actually it’s me, Katie. I go by Pidge now,” Pidge chuckled nervously. Keith silently watched the exchange from the side. Katie?

Shiro’s surprised expression didn’t fade one bit. “Katie? But what are you- why are you here?”

“Lance needed a babysitter for the Galra brat and decided that I was apparently the best choice for that. Something about Hunk being too nice?”

Shiro chuckled, then let himself relax back into his pillow. Keith tried not to scowl too hard.

“Yeah, Lance is constantly complaining about Keith. But I still have faith that they’ll get along someday.”

…had Lance really been complaining about him? To Shiro, of all people? 

Okay, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been doing the same, telling Shiro about how obnoxious Lance was and how terrible he was at singing and how Shiro’s meals tasted a million times better whenever Shiro was awake but… it wasn’t serious complaining. He was just… it was so frustrating being with Lance and not getting along that he had to vent sometimes. Not even about the bad stuff, just about the tiny things that made him annoying. 

Did Lance really dislike him that much?

Pidge snorted a little. “Yeah. Someday. In fifty years, maybe.”

Keith’s stomach dropped. But hadn’t they been kind of getting along? They had been laughing together sometimes, right?

“Now, now, don’t say that. Lance is just…”

“Just?” Pidge prompted.

“Just being a little difficult. He doesn’t really mean anything he says. He was just suddenly thrown out of his usual routine and Keith isn’t exactly the easiest person to get along with-”

“I’m still here!” Keith complained. He couldn’t help but feel better though: if _Shiro_ thought that Lance didn’t really dislike him he was fine. Probably. Even if he had just said that Keith was difficult to get along with.

“I already noticed. He almost attacked me when he saw me in the kitchen earlier,” Pidge said with a sly grin into Keith’s direction. Keith scowled at her.

“I didn’t expect you to be there. Lance didn’t tell me that he would leave so early.”

“No worries, I already told you that I forgave you! You freed me from my anxious waiting to see Shiro again,” Pidge laughed. Then she raised her bowl. “But enough of that, time to feed him.”

They got Shiro to eat the entire bowl and managed to keep their expressions neutral whenever Shiro tried to use his right arm, only to realize that it wasn’t there anymore. When Shiro’s pained face just became too much, Pidge told him to get some more rest and dragged Keith out of the room with her. Keith followed willingly, he had a feeling that this was something Shiro would need some time to adjust to.

As soon as they were back in the kitchen, Pidge let go of his arm and approached the pile of wood again. 

“So, what was all that about?” Keith asked when she didn’t say anything. Pidge blinked, then raised her eyebrows at him.

“All what?”

“Who is Matt? Katie? How do you know Shiro?”

“Oh, that!” She grinned. “Shiro actually used to work for us. Well, for my father. He and my brother Matt were pretty much best friends, he used to be over all the time until… he didn’t. He also lived with us until he was sixteen. I guess he still remembered me by my old name, Katie.”

The pause she inserted made Keith wonder how much she knew about him. Did she know that he was the reason Shiro didn’t come over again? His jaw tightened but he forced it open to keep talking.

“So, you lost contact?”

She shot him a short glance out of the corners of her eyes. “Kind of. There’s a little more to it but… I know Shiro didn’t tell you yet. So my lips are sealed.”

Shiro… kept secrets from him?

He had known that. He had known it all along, really - Shiro sometimes disappeared for a day or longer, always giving him vague excuses like ‘visiting old friends’ or ‘getting important stuff’. Keith knew that there were no friends he actively kept in touch with, he had repeatedly told him that it was simply too dangerous. The state he was in right now only proved it.

Still, it hurt a lot to know that Pidge, someone who hadn’t been in much, if any, contact with Shiro for six years now knew more about his secrets than he did, the person Shiro had _lived_ with for six years. Even if he had lived with her even longer before.

“He seemed surprised to see you here,” Keith said instead, distracting from the topic. Pidge didn’t look at him again, she started sorting through the piles of wood and began arranging them in a certain order.

“Not sure why, he knows that I’m friends with Lance. Perhaps he didn’t think that I’d keep in touch with him?” She picked up a tiny piece of wood, squinted at it and then began carving at it with a knife. 

“Perhaps,” Keith agreed. “How does Lance know Shiro?”

Pidge shot him another calculating glance, then kept carving at her wood. “He is a magician. He needed a safe place to stay before the Galra found out about him. Shiro knew about this lonely place by the ocean and told him about it.” Satisfied with her work, she set the knife aside and began to screw the tiny piece of wood into a bigger one. “In a way, he is Lance’s hero.”

The story didn’t completely add up. Why did Lance decide to approach Shiro for help if he didn’t know him before? Why hide away from everyone when the Galra didn’t even know he was a magician yet? Being cautious was always good but moving to a house at the beach that was hours away from any other human beings seemed a little extreme for that.

Except - what if the Galra already knew about him? Keith still remembered the way Lance had talked about his family, how closed off he had gotten - _what if they were no longer around?_

Dread washed over him and he had to force his voice into something akin to normal to ask his next question. “Then, what about Lance’s family?”

“Oh, they are fine! Hunk is with them at the moment. Does Lance miss them? I keep telling him he should visit them or allow them to come over or at least _talk to them_  once but he’s super serious about severing all connections.” She made a face and grabbed for another piece of wood. “Totally stupid, if you ask me.”

It didn’t add up. There were still a lot of parts missing in this story but Keith figured that he wouldn’t get any more answers today. Besides, why did he even care so much? Nothing about that affected him or his stay in Lance’s house, he shouldn’t waste his time on finding out stuff about Lance. 

Maybe that was exactly the reason why though. He had too much free time around here, especially since he didn’t want to leave Shiro for long. And Lance was the only other person around. Keith desperately needed a distraction, something to keep him busy-

“You getting bored? What about breakfast?” Pidge asked. Keith shrugged. All this thinking about uncomfortable things made him forget about his hunger. Maybe he would eat something later.

“Alright. Wanna join me? You don’t seem to be the type to build stuff but you can always just carve something. You know, like images or sculptures,” Pidge said and handed him a big piece of wood. Not being able to think of anything better to do, he took out his own knife and started carving into it.

They spend the whole day like that, only pausing to check on Shiro, make breakfast, then lunch, gather new wood and then make dinner. Keith had finished three carvings, all of which he was kind of proud of, before Pidge took her leave at sunset. Lance hadn’t even been back by then. Keith decided to stay up, waiting for him - he just didn't want to go to sleep yet.

When the door opened and a quiet “hey guys, I’m back,” echoed through the house, Keith set his fourth carving aside and made his way over to where Lance had put the magical healing tea. It was cold but he remembered Lance telling him that it had no influence on the effectiveness of the drink.

He passed him by the door, wordlessly handing him the cup before vanishing into his room for the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wished I was able to include more Pidge. But I'm tired. So tired now. Let me rest,,,


	4. Pretty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro is feeling better and Lance and Keith get to know each other. Also the jellyfish make an appearance!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let the gay™ begin.

Over the course of the next few days, Lance had begun to notice a few things about Keith.

One, while he definitely wasn’t comfortable talking about himself, he seemed to enjoy talking to Lance. He was capable of making jokes and was insanely good at pointing out the holes in Lance’s arguments, something that Lance couldn’t help but be impressed by. It was annoying, but amazing. A lot about Keith was both annoying and amazing at the same time and he wasn’t sure how someone could be both to such an extreme extent.

Two, he had started to become less restless. Instead of spending at least half of his days outside running around in circles he kept Lance company while he was reading. Lance was quite thankful for that: books weren’t exactly his favourite pastime and Keith was the perfect balance between silence and noise. He was a nice distraction when Lance needed to take a break. Keith had also taken up carving wood as a new hobby and he found that he quite enjoyed the calming scratching of his knife. 

Three, the more Shiro was up the more relaxed and open he became. He was smiling more and responded to Lance’s jokes with more than just scathing sarcasm. And just yesterday he had actually allowed Lance to touch his newest wood carving! The carving wasn’t trying to portray anything, Keith insisted he was shitty at capturing images, but the swirling pattern reminded Lance of the ocean. He had liked it so much that Keith had allowed him to keep it. He had pretended to be nonchalant about it but the truth was that the present made him very happy.

Four, Keith really wasn’t as much of an asshole as Lance had originally thought. This observation might or might not have been heavily influenced by the carved wood present that was now standing on his bedside table. Lance wouldn’t admit to anything.

The last and arguably most important thing he had noticed was that Keith was extremely uncomfortable in his own skin.

He was cursed to look like a Galra, so Lance could somehow understand why he felt this way. It made him feel guilty about the doubts that had circled in his head just a few days prior - Keith obviously wasn’t planning to harm either him or Shiro. He had actually thought about apologizing for making Pidge come over but it had been a week since then and that would just be weird. Forget and forgive, yeah? The order of these things didn't really matter anyway.

Two weeks had passed in total since Keith had moved into Lance’s life. He still avoided looking at reflecting surfaces at all costs. Lance respected that and tried to help him by keeping the water around him to a minimum but he couldn’t help but getting a little worried. Being so on edge all the time couldn’t be good for him.

Which, yeah, was part of the reason he was still reading these damn books, trying to find a way to break the curse that didn’t involve any of them dying. So far he hadn’t been very successful and Keith wasn’t a big help either with his secrecy about the curse breaking condition. Granted, Lance hadn’t actually told him that he was searching for a way to break it but he would have liked to say that they were friends by now. Enough so that he could tell him a little about himself, right?

Then again, Lance wasn’t ready to talk about his reasons to live far away from everyone else either. It was just… personal. A little too much. They would get there, one day. Hopefully.

“Morning Shiro! How are you feeling on this beautiful day?” Lance chirped and manoeuvred two plates into the room. Keith was out in the forest somewhere, stretching his legs and getting some more wood for his carvings.

Shiro looked up from the book that Lance had lend him and send him a smile. “Just fine, I guess. It’s getting a little boring though.”

“Tell me about it. I used to spend at least half of my days at the sea but now that you guys are here I’m stuck to cooking and reading books instead.” Lance groaned. “I don’t even like books!”

“I noticed. Why are you reading them?” Shiro seemed genuinely curious but Lance didn't really want to admit that he spent the majority of his time fruitlessly searching for a way to break a Galran curse. It wasn’t even that he thought that Shiro would laugh at him or call it stupid, it was just that Lance… didn’t want to talk about it. Yes, that was all.

“Oh, you know… nothing to do here. I could make some more potions but I already have more than I can carry.”

Shiro shot him a look. Oh no.

“Really, I’m serious! Just wasting a little time, learning some new spells…”

“You are never trying any new spells,” Shiro pointed out. Lance laughed uncomfortably. 

“Yeah, I’m just… y’know… getting ideas and stuff… I usually try them out at night when you guys are asleep.”

Shiro just kept looking. Damn him and his ability to make people talk.

“Okay, okay, I get it! Don’t give me that look, geez! I’m… I’m actually trying to find a way to break Keith’s curse.” Surprise took over Shiro’s features and Lance winced. “Don’t tell him though. I’ve been trying this whole time and didn’t find anything, I don’t want him to get his hopes up.”

Shiro’s eyes twinkled. “That’s very kind of you, Lance.” 

“Ah! Ah, eh, I’m just, uh… y’know, I don’t want want him to suffer anymore. You should see his face whenever he catches a look of his reflection.” Before the mood could become too dark, he added: “Besides, the sooner the curse is broken, the sooner he can leave. I don’t get along with him anyway, he’s an ass.”

“Funny, he keeps telling me the same thing about you,” Shiro mused.

“I am _not_ an ass!” Lance spluttered indignantly. 

“Yeah, it is totally justified of you to make his drinking water move out of his cup whenever he’s trying to take a sip.”

“Oh come on, that was a joke! Totally harmless! Besides it was revenge for him for flooding my living room with firewood, you should have seen it! He stacked so much in there that you couldn’t even see the ceiling anymore, never mind _entering_ the room, it took me half a day to carry it all out again!” Fucking Keith. Lance was half aware that he was glowering at the wall that pointed towards the forest but didn’t pay it any mind. His muscles still ached from the memory. 

“And if I remember correctly that was revenge for you making him search the entire forest for a flower that isn't even blooming this time of the year.”

“Yeah, but that was only because _he_ kept insulting my jellyfish-” Lance could have kept going but he gasped instead. “The jellyfish! I haven’t introduced them to you yet!”

Shiro let out a laugh. “Introduce them? They have names?”

“Yeah! There are five of them, hang on a minute.” Lance made sure to set their breakfast carefully onto Shiro’s book, he didn’t want to waste any food, and then sprinted out of the room to get his pets. They were in the barrel, happily swimming around and still eating the brine shrimp Lance had strewn into the water earlier. 

“Come on, come on, carefully, we have a guest to impress!” Lance mumbled as he lifted the water out of the barrel. The jellyfish were unperturbed by the sudden change in their environment, they just kept swimming around. In the daylights their bright blue color wasn’t that obvious but for Lance they were as beautiful as ever. A little giddy, he carried the orb back to Shiro’s room.

Shiro had somehow managed to put the book and Lance’s plate onto the ground and had started eating. He was fighting with his fork and a tiny bit of fish when Lance entered. 

“Look! I’ll close the blinds, that makes them a lot prettier.” He walked over and closed the blinds, letting the jellyfish float closer to Shiro.

Now that the room was almost dark, their glow increased tenfold. For a moment both Shiro and Lance just watched them motionlessly, entranced by the slow and elegant movements as the jellyfish floated through the water. Then Lance moved closer and pointed at the tiniest of them.

“That one is called Alga since I found it in the middle of a lot of algae. Pidge was with me that day so she pretty much adopted it. It’s her favourite.” Moving his finger to the one that swam closest to Shiro, he continued. “That one is Crab. It was swimming around close to the rocks and almost looked as if it was trying to attack a crab so I rescued it before the _crab_ could attack _it_. Hunk almost cried when I told him the story, so Crab is Hunk’s now.”

Shiro chuckled a little. “Sounds like Hunk alright. How is he?”

“Fine, last that I heard. At the moment he is with my family, so I’m trying to keep the contact to a minimum.” Shiro’s smile disappeared and Lance instantly felt bad for corrupting the happy atmosphere. He needed to keep talking, distracting from the topic. “So anyway! This one is my favorite, I call it Princess! It’s the most majestic one out of all of them, don’t you think so? It’s special, look, it has five circles instead of four. I found it the same day I found Crab, the both of them were my first jellyfish.” 

“For how long have you had them?” Shiro asked. Lance beamed.

“Around five months now! Isn’t that incredible? I’m pretty sure they would have died by now if it wasn’t for my magic telling me when their health declines due to poor water quality or temperature. I actually don’t know how long they are supposed to live… I hope it’s a lot, I’d miss them if they died.” He frowned at the five jellyfish that were swimming around cluelessly. 

“Well, they seem to be quite healthy now,” Shiro said after a beat of silence. Lance smiled thankfully and nodded.

“They are! Look, there are two more - the big one is called Leader. And the other one over there is Prince, I’m pretty sure it has a thing for Princess but they are jellyfish so I can’t really tell…”

Shiro raised his eyebrows but grinned. “Sounds like quite an adventure you have going on there.”

“It is! They are! Aren’t they pretty?” Lance gushed. “I should probably put them back now though, it’s a little too warm for them to be out during the day. Besides Keith should be coming back any moment now and he doesn’t deserve to see them in all their glory until he accepts that they are amazing.”

Shiro’s laugh followed him all the way back to the kitchen where he put his jellyfish back into the barrel. His stomach growled, it was time to get some food into him.

“So… how do you know Keith anyway?” Lance asked, once he had finished his meal and helped Shiro lay down again. His fever was completely gone by now but he still wore out incredibly quick. 

“I was friends with his mother,” Shiro answered, then paused. His face closed off when he continued. “After she died I took him in. He has been living with me ever since.”

Whoops. Maybe not the best conversation topic.

“Uh… so, did he always like carving wood?”

“No,” Shiro chuckled. “That’s new. He told me that Pidge showed him how to do it.”

“I wouldn’t know, I just came back one day and there were like three and a half statues on the table. I figured that it was Pidge’s work but when I asked her, she said that it was Keith. And then I saw him walking around with a drawn knife more often.” Lance idly wondered whether he actually needed a knife to carve anything. Weren’t his claws sharp enough for that?

“It’s a nice hobby,” Shiro spoke.

“Definitely nicer than running around the house and making the wind blow the sand in here,” Lance agreed. But before he could complain about other stupid stuff Keith did, a voice interrupted him.

“Lance? I’m back!”

“Speak of the devil,” Lance whispered with a dramatic eyeroll. Shiro shot him a disapproving look but Lance could see the smile tugging at his lips. He grinned and raised his voice. “Keith! I’m with Shiro! There’s some breakfast for you on the table!” He didn’t get an answer, but the sound of claws against hardened clay told him everything he needed to know. Just a few moments later, a sweaty Keith joined them. Lance made a face at him.

“Do you always have to work out so much? You stink!”

“At least I am doing _something_ instead of staying holed up inside all day and sticking my nose into dusty, old books.”

Rude much?! Lance was doing this for him! 

Not that he knew, but still.

“I told you, I am broadening my mind! If you keep being that much of an asshole I’ll personally come to this room and wake you up with my beautiful singing each morning! Even if you technically don’t deserve that privilege.”

“Hey! I wasn’t the first one to insult anyone here!” Keith protested at the same time as Shiro uttered a pained “please don’t.”

Crossing his arms, Lance ignored the arm that Keith held into his direction. He could stay sweaty and gross for all he cared.

“Come on Lance,” Keith said, sounding annoyed. 

“Yeah, come on, it really is starting to stink in here,” Shiro teased. Lance shot him a grin and patted Shiro’s arm, totally ignoring Keith’s scowl. 

“Alright, I’ll have mercy on the sick. Come on Keith, time to get you cleaned up.” Keith let out an agitated huff but didn’t protest as Lance grabbed his wrist and collected all the sweat and dirt. In fact, he seemed to rather enjoy it - Lance noticed that his scowl lost some of it’s edge and his shoulders relaxed. He fought against the smile that wanted to sneak onto his face.

“What have you two been up to?” Keith asked once Lance was finished with his job. He then proceeded to stuff his face with as much food as possible, he must have been hungry. 

Lance shrugged. “You know, the usual. Intellectuals talking amongst themselves. Having cultivated conversations about those books you so despise.” Shiro snorted and Lance shot him a sideways look to keep him from commenting. He couldn’t have Shiro mentioning him not liking books, otherwise Keith might suspect something. Surprisingly enough his look worked, Shiro kept quiet. Keith just scowled darkly at him.

“Not a fan of books? Well, I deplore to tell you this but in order to join our higher plane of… uh… intelligence you’ll have to do some light reading first,” Lance drawled. He pointed at the most complicated and useless book he remembered reading and shot Keith a smirk. “This one might be good for an introduction.”

Keith’s scowl just hardened and he looked away. Lance kept teasing.

“Not worth the trouble? Well, I can’t say I expected anything else from-”

“Fuck you. I’ll read it, hand it over.” Still grinning, Lance threw the book at Keith. Shiro stayed suspiciously quiet through the exchange. 

Keith caught the book and opened it at a random page. It was obvious that he had no idea what the author was trying to say - oh boy, Lance knew that feeling - as he turned page after page with a steadily deepening frown.

“Keith,” Shiro said gently, making both men turn to look at him. “It’s fine. Forget it. Did Lance already tell you about his jellyfish?”

“I _told you_ that Keith won’t get to see them until he accepts that they are awesome!” Lance exclaimed.

“They are _jellyfish_ , they are literally just water and glibber, are we _really_ going to do this again?!”

“Well, yeah! Apparently! As often as needed until you accept that they are amazing and you are wrong!”

Within seconds they were back to their usual banter, not even noticing how Shiro fell asleep again.

 

* * *

 

Three days later Lance felt that it was safe for Shiro to try and get up again. He had to start moving and check that Lance hadn’t accidentally damaged any muscle tissue while he had cleaned out the infection all that time ago. They took him for a walk around the house since Shiro hadn’t seen anything besides the guest room yet. 

“It looks nice,” Shiro offered when Lance opened the door to his room. Then he narrowed his eyes at his bedside table. “Is that…?”

Lance flushed and pushed both Shiro and the worried Keith out again before Keith could see that his carving had permanently made its way to Lance’s bedside. “Not important anyway! You should come see the living room, though Keith has kind of transformed it into a wood yard.”

“You said that I should put my stuff in there!” Keith bristled. 

“Well yeah, it’s better than the kitchen… but if you wouldn’t insist on keeping everything, including your failures-”

“They are not failures! They are simply not finished yet!”

Lance raised his eyebrows at Keith and made his way over to a certain carved piece. He knew exactly where to look for it, it was his perfect Keith teasing material. The wood was supposed to be a flower but- it looked more like a tree. A weird tree. With very few leaves. A very _ugly_ tree.

“Yeah, no, they kind of are failures,” Lance said.

“…maybe they kind of are,” Keith admitted. He didn’t look too happy about it though and Lance threw an arm around his shoulder.

“No worries buddy, for now you can stick to ugly trees, you’ll get there sometime.”

“It’s a flower,” Keith insisted weakly. Shiro ruffled his hair.

“Just keep going, Lance is right, you’ll get there sometime.”

“And hey, we can always use this as kindle for our cooking fire!” Lance smirked. Keith plucked the wood out of his hands and protectively held it closer. 

“We will not. There is plenty of other stuff.”

“But Keith, even you admitted it was a failure! We can burn it-”

“Shut up!”  


“Aww, does it hold sentimental value?”

“I said, shut up!” Keith was frowning but his voice was light and Lance knew that they weren’t fighting in earnest. Thinking some more about it he realized that they hadn't really been fighting for a long time now. For some reason he felt happy about it.

“Wow, your kitchen is really big!” Shiro suddenly said from outside the room. Keith dropped the wood before hastily catching up, Lance right on his heels. See, Lance knew that he didn’t care about the thing half as much as he pretended to. It really was ugly, after all.

“Actually it doubles as a kitchen and my magic experiment room! That is, when I need a room. I learned most of my water spells by the ocean, I just come here for potions and stuff,” Lance explained. “Over there are my jellyfish. You can’t see it from here but it’s also where I put my flasks with the finished potions. It’s kind of like,” Lance moved just behind the kitchen table and spread his arms out, “this side of the room is for boring stuff and everything behind me is cool magic.”

“Cooking is boring?” Shiro asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

“No wonder your food is always so bad,” Keith uttered under his breath.

Oh, it was _on_.

“What was that? I can’t seem to remember you cooking even a single time.”

“Because I didn’t want to accidentally use one of your deadly plants. There are plants _everywhere_.” Keith had a point, Lance didn’t really care where he put his herbs, after all he could clean and dry them within seconds, but-

“I don’t keep anything deadly in my kitchen! Who do you think I am?!”

“Oh, you don't? And what would you call that?!” 

Lance turned his head to follow Keith’s finger. He pointed at a tiny violet flower on one of the upper shelves. 

“Uh, a flower?”

“A _poisonous_ flower, Lance,” Keith said exasperatedly. Lance was nonplussed. 

“Keith is actually right, you shouldn’t eat that one. But since you are still alive and well, I assume you didn’t do it anyways,” Shiro chimed in.

“Wait! Keith is right?! _This thing is deadly?!”_ Lance panicked. He had kept a poisonous flower in his kitchen. Dear god, _he had actually kept a poisonous flower in his fucking kitchen._ He was alive but if he hadn’t been as careful as he had been…

“As long as you don’t eat it, it’s fine,” Shiro reassured him. Lance didn’t feel any better. The same seemed to apply to Keith if his constipated expression was anything to judge by.

“You never actually bothered to check whether the plants you keep in here are poisonous?!” 

“It was for a healing potion! I didn’t think that they would include poisonous stuff! And Hunk never said anything!” Lance yelled. Dear god. He could have been _dead_ by now. He lived in this house in the middle of nowhere and nobody would have known if he died here, all alone… maybe Pidge would have found his body after not hearing anything from him for a month. The thought made him shudder.

“Now, now, let’s not dwell on that too much. How about we get cooking instead?” Shiro suggested. It was almost dinnertime and Lance’s stomach approved the idea of food. 

“Hell yes,” he agreed immediately. 

“Alright, what do you guys want to eat? Lance, what do you have?”

“Uh.” Lance thought for a moment. “Fish. Not that much anymore but I can always quickly go to the ocean and get some new ones. I also bought a rabbit on my walk yesterday, it’s frozen somewhere over there. And I brought some new spices since this guy here,” he jabbed a finger at Keith, “was always complaining about my food tasting ‘bland’.”

“It’s true,” Keith nodded solemnly. Ass.

Shiro seemed to contemplate his options, then he smiled determinedly. “Alright, let’s make the rabbit. I can’t say I’ve all that much experience with fish. Lance, get to work and unfreeze it. Keith, you prepare the fire and the workspace. I’ll take a look at the spices.”

Lance nodded and headed over to his bag behind the jellyfish barrel, piling the new spices in his arms and carrying them over to Shiro. Then he made his way over to the box in which he had placed the frozen rabbit. Taking the ice between his hands, he made it liquid again it, collecting the freezing cold water in a sphere next to him. He separated all the dirt into a tiny drop and flung it out of the window, letting the now clean - and still fucking _cold_ \- water follow him back to Shiro.

“What now, boss?” he joked. 

Shiro’s right shoulder moved. He had tried to extend his right arm to take the rabbit while his left hand never left the bottles of spices. Lance froze up, unsure of what to do.

“Come on Lance, just-” Shiro cut himself off when he raised his head and realized that he didn’t have an arm to hold it with anymore. The air around them suddenly became oppressive.

“I- I’ll just go ahead and skin the rabbit,” Lance squeaked. He still didn’t know how to offer comfort to someone that had lost his arm. Shiro nodded, his face carefully schooled into a neutral expression.

Throughout the early preparations this scene repeated itself three times. Shiro had been right handed and even just filling some of the spices from a bottle into a bowl became hard work for him. It was Keith who finally told him to sit out until he got used to being left-handed.

“You can give us instructions, otherwise Keith will fail miserably,” Lance added, attempting to lighten the mood. Shiro smiled but it was strained.

“I will _not_ fail! I’ve cooked with Shiro before, I can do this.”

“I bet I’m still better than you,” Lance challenged. Keith narrowed his eyes.

“Wanna try me?”

“Damn right I do, otherwise I wouldn’t have mentioned it, would I?”

One hour later the entire kitchen was a mess, Shiro had given up on shouting instructions and dinner was passable at best. Still, they were laughing: all of them were laughing. Shiro had seemingly forgotten about his arm for a moment and Keith was relaxed as he kept throwing insults at Lance. It had been worth it, Lance could clean most of the kitchen within a few moments anyway. Hell, he would have done it again even if he hadn’t been able to do that as long as he had gotten the same results. 

Keith was really pretty when he smiled.

 

* * *

 

“So, tell me again, what exactly are we doing?” Keith asked him. Lance send him an evil grin.

“We’re going fishing!”

“But I thought you could get your fishes just like this!” Keith awkwardly snapped his fingers and Lance rolled his eyes.

“I could but where would be the fun in that?” At Keith’s darkening expression Lance hurriedly kept talking. “We still have a score to settle after all. The other day in the kitchen we didn’t get a clear winner.”  


“No way, my food was way better than yours.”

“It _so_ wasn’t!” Lance shouted. “It was awful. It was all awful. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything that awful in months.”

“…it wasn’t _that_ bad.”

Lance grinned. He had won this. “No it wasn’t, but it also definitely wasn’t good. So I thought of a better way to determine once and for all which one of us is the better person!”

“Through _fishing?”_

“Oh yeah. Don’t think you can handle it?” Lance couldn’t help the smirk creeping onto his face when he watched Keith fighting with himself.

“I can!” he finally said. “I totally can but Shiro-”

“Will be just fine,” Lance interrupted. He raised his right hand that carried a bucket full of water. Earlier that day he had placed a bucket similar to this one at the kitchen table and had put a spell onto the two of them. Shiro would be able to talk to them anytime, the water would carry the sound through the buckets. Pidge and Hunk had a similar one that Lance used every so often if he missed them. Or if he needed to talk about... stuff. Keith, mostly.

Keith inspected the bucket once more, then he huffed. “Okay, fine. I will go fishing with you. Not that I know how to do that…”

“Lucky me then, I can’t remember the last time I went fishing like this either!” Lance exclaimed happily and raised the fishing rods in his left hand. “They belong to Pidge and Hunk but I’m sure they’ll forgive me for using them. It’s for an important thing, after all.”

Keith still didn’t seem to keen on the idea of going fishing but didn’t protest any further. Good. Lance would force him to have some fun today, even if it was the last thing he did. 

Content with the situation, he led Keith to a tiny hidden boat near the rocks he had found Crab by. The boat was not only hidden by the stones but also by the same camouflaging spell Lance had put upon his house. He couldn’t risk a stupid boat revealing his presence, that would just be plain ridiculous after all the effort he went through to lie low. 

As soon as he spied the boat, Lance started running towards it. He ignored Keith’s alarmed “where are you going?!” and climbed into it just when Keith caught up with him. Damn Keith’s Galra body, he sure was fast.

“Loser has to push!” he grinned. A quick check showed him that the boat was a little dirty but one swipe of his hands had cleaned it all away. He sat down and stared at Keith expectantly. 

Keith just stood in front of the boat, evidently not quite sure what to do with himself. Lance sighed, he kept forgetting that Keith didn’t have any experience with the ocean whatsoever.

“First you untie the rope,” he said and pointed towards the stone that kept the boat in place. Keith send him a glare but went and untied it. Lance smirked and threw his arms over the railing. “And now you push. We have to get the boat into the water somehow, come on, move it.”

“Shut up or I’ll leave you here,” Keith muttered but grabbed the wood and began pushing. Lance almost went overboard. 

“Woah, woah, woah, not that hard! Slow down there, muscle-man! It’s fragile!”

“Sorry!” Since Keith really seemed guilty for once, Lance let it slide. It was probably the Galra strength that he still had troubles with sometimes. Lance wished he could help him with that but there wasn’t anything he could do besides not making him even more uncomfortable.

Keith kept pushing, a lot slower now, and Lance let himself relax. He closed his eyes and breathed in, smelling the sea breeze. It was something that he would probably never get enough of. The boat was swaying slightly with the waves and the sun was warming his skin and Lance could honestly say he had missed this. Ever since Shiro had arrived, he hadn’t had any time to unwind and just… let go.

“Uh, Lance? How far do I need to go?” Keith’s voice dragged him out of his peaceful state. Lance glanced over at him and did a double take when he noticed that Keith had submerged himself up to his chin.

“Stop! Just stop already! God, how are you planning to climb in now?” Keith blinked a few times, obviously not having thought about that and Lance facepalmed. What an idiot. “Alright, just drag us back a little until I tell you to stop.” 

Without further comments, Keith dragged them back up the beach again. When he was only knee-deep Lance instructed him to climb in. Keith made a face at the water that clung to him but didn’t protest, probably realizing that Lance would dry him as soon as he got onboard. 

As it turned out, Keith was a natural with boats. He didn’t have any problems with keeping his balance at all and despite naturally having stronger arms than Lance he somehow managed to adapt to Lance’s paddling. When Lance figured that they were far enough from the coastline, he handed Keith Hunk’s fishing rod. 

“Okay so, first you put one of these things onto the hook.” Lance grabbed himself one of the many dried... somethings that Pidge and Hunk had figured out worked well as fish bait. “Then you throw the rod out and wait. When you feel something catching on you pull it out again.”

Keith shrugged and took something that looked a lot like a dried worm. Ew. Lance stretched himself and got to his feet. “Now then, watch and learn!” he laughed and threw the rod.

Nothing happened.

“Yeah?” Keith arched an eyebrow at him. Lance flushed a little and stared at his device but couldn’t find any fault with it. 

“Again,” he said instead and threw it out once more. The cord unrolled a bit but it barely touched the water. Lance frowned, what was he doing wrong? It always looked so easy with Hunk and Pidge!

“Let me try,” Keith grinned. He got up and threw his rod, his line unfurling a little more than Lance’s. It wasn’t good yet but definitely better than his and he couldn’t have that.

“Nuh-uh, not far enough either, you have to do it with more momentum.” 

“Like you are one to talk.”

“I wasn’t - that was just a test! I was just warming up!” Lance defended himself. Keith rolled his eyes, rolled up his cord and threw the thing again.

This time it unfurled almost completely. Lance could feel his eyes bulging. How did he _do_ that?

Not one to be outdone, Lance rolled his string up as well and threw it out again. In contrary to Keith he didn’t do any better than last time. What the hell? He heard Keith snorting and narrowed his eyes at him, daring him to say anything. 

Keith wasn’t impressed by his glare. “You have to do it with more _momentum_ ,” he taunted. 

Why was he such an asshole?! "I'll show you momentum!"  Reciting a spell under his breath, Lance threw the fishing rod again. This time the wind carried it as far as it could, letting it fall into the water far away from the boat. He send Keith a smirk. “You were saying?”

“You are a fucking cheater,” Keith grumbled. He couldn’t prove anything though and Lance kept smirking in victory. When Keith threw out his cord for the third time, he managed to get it to the same point as Lance’s - not that it mattered anymore. He had already won their contest. Now they just had to wait. 

And wait they did. A lot of waiting, until something caught onto Lance’s hook. Excitedly he started pulling, only to realize that the fish hadn’t yet gotten the chance to bite on. Keith laughed at him and Lance was about to snap at him but then he… he couldn’t. As soon as he caught sight of Keith’s face he couldn’t do it anymore. 

Keith was beautiful. 

It was an odd thing to think, especially since he looked like a _Galra_ , but Lance couldn’t help it. The sea breeze had ruffled his hair and his shoulders were relaxed as he leaned back to let the laughter out. His happiness seemed to make him glow from within and it was at this moment that Lance realized how _unhappy_ he usually was. As if he carried so many worries and regrets on his shoulders that he never let himself go and just _be_. As if he hadn’t lived in the present in ages.

When Lance realized he was staring, he quickly turned away and put a new bait onto his hook. Was he blushing? He hoped not, he wouldn’t have any explanation for that. Gulping once, he snuck a short glance at Keith.

Luckily for him, Keith didn’t even look at him. He was staring out at the sea, watching as the sun reflected on the surface, a small smile still playing on his lips. Damn, he was… he really was just beautiful. 

Lance coughed, repeated the wind spell and threw his fishing rod out again. He really needed to think about something else.

“I knew you were cheating. You didn’t even lower your voice this time,” Keith said and elbowed his side when he sat down again. Lance shrugged. 

“Since you already knew I didn’t have any reputation to loose, right?” When Keith grinned and shook his head in exasperation, Lance had to look away quickly to avoid blushing again. What was wrong with him?

“Say whatever you have to say to make yourself feel better, loser.” Now it was Lance’s turn to elbow Keith. The both of them kept shoving each other until Lance lost his balance and accidentally kicked Keith’s fishing rod into the water.

“Shit!” Keith immediately let go of him and looked at the dark surface. It was quickly disappearing from sight as Lance got behind him and waved it goodbye. 

“What are you doing?! Didn’t you say this was your friend’s thing?” Keith hissed.

Lance grinned evilly. He saw Keith’s eyes widen in suspicion of what was to come.

“It is. And that’s why you gotta join it and bring it back up again!” With these words, Lance pushed him over the railing - or well, at least attempted to. 

Keith took his arm and flung him over his head, making Lance fall into the water instead. The ocean’s coolness took him by surprise and he flailed around a little before finally treading water and breaching the surface again. “You ass!” he laughed at Keith. He started rubbing his arms to keep himself warm.

Keith grinned down at him from the boat. “You tried to push me in there, I think we’re even now!”

“Fuck you!” 

But Lance was laughing and shivering and his words definitely didn’t have the usual effect. And it wasn’t as if he was uncomfortable, he had missed the feeling of water all around him. Throwing him into the ocean might not have been the nicest way to get there but he could live with it. Maybe he should start each morning with a visit to the ocean instead of making breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast. Lance turned around to take a look at the sinking sun. They hadn’t managed to catch a single fish and had already wasted at least three hours. 

“Time to go back?” Keith asked as if he had read his thoughts. Lance nodded and accepted Keith’s help to pull him out of the water. He could have gotten up there way easier on his own but it was nice to hold Keith’s hand. Well, as long as he was mindful of his claws at least.

As soon as Lance was back on board, Keith stuck his head back over the railing. “What are we going to do about the fishing rod?”

But Lance just laughed, got next to him and extended one arm towards the surface of the water. “Who do you think you’re dealing with?” He send him a wink before concentrating on the ocean below him, asking the water to bring Hunk’s rod back up again. A few moments later he felt wood touching his palm and curled his fingers around it before dragging it out. Grinning in victory, he raised the fishing rod into the air.

Keith was looking at him, slightly in awe. Suddenly self-conscious, Lance lowered his arm again and coughed. “What?”

“Your eyes are really pretty!” Keith blurted out. Lance sent him a confused look and then watched in amusement as Keith’s face contorted in mortification. 

“Why, thank you! The perks of being a powerful magician, wouldn’t you agree?” He send him another wink to top it all off. 

Keith looked as if he might spontaneously combust at any moment. Lance couldn’t keep his laughter in anymore. Everything about this situation was awkward and surreal, he couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. It almost sounded like…

Was he _flirting?!_

Oh god, mission abort, mission abort! Forcing himself not to blush, Lance coughed again and placed the rod next to the other one. He hoped that Keith didn't think that he was getting sick. “Alright, let’s get us home,” he said, carefully avoiding looking at Keith until he was absolutely sure his face was back to normal.

Apparently thankful for the distraction, Keith grabbed his paddle. But when he expectantly turned around to Lance, Lance shook his head and sat back against the railing, touching the water once more. He had missed the feeling of doing useless magic by the ocean…

_Your eyes are really pretty!_

No. _Nononononono_. Lance could hear a tiny part of himself screaming at him not to do it but he really couldn’t resist. He let his magic flow into the water, making it push against the boat and shot Keith a grin. He knew that his eyes were glowing again and made a point of not closing them, just to see Keith making that constipated expression again. He did… Keith _really_ thought that his eyes were pretty!  The thought made him giddy.

They were back at the beach in no time at all.

When they got out of the boat, Lance realized with a pang that he would miss this. He would miss goofing around with Keith in the middle of the ocean, just the two of them. He would miss the way Keith looked when he didn’t have any worries for once and let himself live instead. He would miss… all of it.

_Well, it’s not like Keith is gone_ , he reasoned with himself. They would just go back to Shiro, whom they had neglected for around four hours now. They could probably repeat this another time.

With the boat all tied up, Keith took his leave. Lance stayed a little longer, telling him he would actually go catch some fish for the next few days - but he honestly didn’t know whether he stayed for the fish or for the freshly made memories that he wanted to indulge in for just a moment longer.

_Your eyes are really pretty!_

Lance wasn’t aware that he was still smiling until he caught sight of his reflection. Alright, time to stop this now. He needed catch their dinner and head back home or Keith and Shiro would get worried.

Dinner was peaceful for once. Lance and Keith kept making tiny jabs at each other but even Shiro remarked that the going fishing thing seemed to have put them into a better mood. It certainly wasn’t a lie so they couldn’t judge Lance for still thinking about it even after Shiro had gone to bed. He was sitting in the kitchen with Keith, trying to concentrate on a book that was outlining the differences between spells and curses when he suddenly came to an revelation. 

“My eyes!” Lance slammed the book closed. Keith looked at him as if he had grown a second head. Okay, maybe there was a little more explanation needed-

“You think my eyes are pretty, right?”

Keith started making that weird expression again and looked as if he was about to protest so Lance cut him off with a wave of his hands. “No, no, no, you don’t even have to say anything. I already told you, I get it a lot, young children even want to _touch_ my eyes, which is why I’m usually closing them - but the point is, they are pretty!” He made a pause, waiting for Keith to reluctantly acknowledge that statement with a nod. “They are pretty because they are glowing!” Another nod.

“Then you _have_ to admit that my jellyfish are pretty, too!” Lance concluded in triumph. 

Keith just rolled his eyes. “Really? We are back here again?”

“Yes! I won’t let this go until you admit it! My jellyfish are super pretty and the best pets I’ve ever had!” He didn’t add that they were also the only pets he has ever had but that was besides the point.

“Lance, they are jellyfish,” Keith repeated in a strained voice. 

“I know!” He threw his hands in the air. “And they are awesome!”

Keith sighed. “If I say they are awesome, will you finally let this go?”

Lance considered that for a moment. If Keith admitted that they were awesome without actually thinking so, it wouldn’t really mean that he had won this argument. But it would mean that Lance could actually introduce them and _then_ he would have no choice but to accept that Lance had been right all along. Nobody could resist the jellyfish once they had actually seen them.

“Sure, if you admit it I’ll introduce you and you won’t ever have to hear another word on the topic again,” he conceded. 

“Alright. Yes Lance, your jellyfish are awesome and suuuuuper pretty!” 

Ignoring the fake excitement in Keith’s voice, Lance shot him a grin and ran over to the barrel. “Time to meet your new friend, my guys,” he cooed at them, then looked back over his shoulder at Keith. “Put the candles out! They are even prettier in the dark. Oh man, it’s been so long that I took them on a walk through the house, I bet they’ve missed it!”

Keith sighed loudly enough that Lance could hear him all the way from the other side of the kitchen but blew the candles out. “All dark,” he said shortly after. Ideal. It was nighttime so Keith would be in for the full effect. Lance had totally won this already.

Slowly and carefully Lance lifted his pets out of their barrel. They kept floating through the gigantic sphere, obviously not bothered in the slightest. Their blue-violet light shimmered strongly and Lance couldn’t keep the huge grin off his face if he tried.

“Prepare yourself Keith, you are now going to see how truly majestic they are!” Careful to not let the orb of water touch any of the herbs or furniture, he made his way over to Keith.

Keith, who stared at the jellyfish in wonder and surprise. 

“What did I tell you?” Lance asked smugly when they were close enough that the glow of the animals lit up Keith’s face. His shining yellow eyes were now dotted with reflections of blue and purple and Lance found himself strangely entranced. Was this what Keith had meant when he had said that Lance’s eyes were pretty?

“Aren’t they supposed to be slimy glibbery things that float around doing nothing?!” Keith blurted out. Lance felt himself being forced back to reality and couldn’t help but feeling offended on behalf of the jellyfish.

“They are swimming! They are eating! They are even glowing which is more than what most fishes are doing!” When Keith didn’t protest this time, Lance came up next to him and pointed at the individual jellyfish. “This one is Alga. It’s the tiniest and belongs to Pidge. That one is Crab, it’s Hunk’s. Guess which one is mine?” he asked, sending Keith a bright smile. Keith squinted at them and sure enough, pointed at Princess.

“That one. It’s weird, it has more than four squares.”

“ _Excuse you?!_ Princess is not _weird!_ It’s is beautiful and special and you will treat it with respect!” Lance was _seriously_ offended this time. _Princess was not weird!_

Keith shot him a grin. “Yeah, right. What about the other two?”

“I’m not sure if I want to tell you now,” Lance huffed out. How dare he insult Princess. It was Lance’s most treasured possession!

“Alright, then don’t,” Keith shrugged and turned around to leave the room. Lance immediately pulled him back by his shirt, wrapping an arm around his shoulders to keep him in place.

He was warm.

“Okay! Okay, I got it, I’ll tell you. The big one is Leader and the one over there is Prince. I’m like 99% sure that it has a thing for Princess, if that’s even possible for jellyfish. That’s why I called it Prince.”

Keith brought his face closer to the surface of the water. “Whom do they belong to?” 

It was probably about time to let his arm drop away. Lance didn’t want to though and since Keith didn’t protest, he kept it there around his shoulders. It was just… Keith was warm, that was all there was to it.

“They don’t belong to anyone yet. Not many people come visit me here,” he answered honestly. “But hey, you and Shiro could totally adopt them! Which one would you like to have?”

Hesitantly Keith looked at Lance.

God, he was so close. He gulped.

Keith turned his head away again.

“I… don’t know.”

“Come on, just choose whichever, I’m sure Shiro will accept the other one! He already loves all of them, I can tell,” Lance grinned.

“Then… Prince, I guess,” Keith answered. Lance clapped his shoulder with his free hand. 

“Excellent choice! Would you like to pet him?”

Keith visibly recoiled and Lance was forced to drop his arm. Damn it. He could already feel the cold against his warmed arm. 

“Don’t they sting?!” 

“Nah, not really,” Lance reassured him and carefully separated Prince from the others. The orb was tiny and he couldn’t move around much but it wouldn’t be for long anyway.

“Jellyfish never sting if you just touch the upper part. At least I think so. The ones I met don’t? And this specific kind here doesn’t sting at all! You could totally grab it and fling it at me and neither you nor I would feel a thing! Except for a little glibber, I guess. But don’t you dare do that or I’ll find the evil kind of jellyfish next time and let them shock you to death!”

Keith shot him a look but slowly raised his hand towards the water. “Careful with your claws! Don’t damage its skin!” Lance added and watched as Keith pressed his palm against the water orb, his fingers curled back as far as possible. It parted just as easily as normal water did and only moments later he saw Prince pressing against Keith’s hand.

Excited, Lance put his own hand into the big orb and petted Alga when it passed him. “Don’t they feel funny?”

“They… do,” Keith admitted with a confused, half disgusted expression. But he didn’t drag his hand back out again so Lance counted it as a win. He slowly began to mimic Lance and started petting it. “It feels… weird. Super slimy. Cold.” 

Lance laughed and reached over to pat Princess this time. “I know right? It feels really, really weird but at the same time you don’t really mind and just keep petting it. And when you take your hand back out again you expect it to be covered in slime or something but there will be nothing but water!” He send Keith another grin and was pleased to note that it got reciprocated this time. 

They kept petting the jellyfish for a little longer, then Lance pulled his hand back and let them rejoin in a big circle. A quick check told him that the water had gotten a little warmer and dirtier and he corrected the values before stepping back to observe the jellyfish merrily swimming along. It really was calming to look at.

After a little time had passed, he nudged Keith. “Do you admit that you’ve been wrong and that they are pretty cool after all?” 

“I guess,” Keith half laughed. “I still can’t believe that I’m looking at your pet jellyfish and entertaining the idea of adopting one of them.”

“You already did! Prince is yours and you can’t give it back! It liked you!” 

“It’s a _jellyfish!”_

“Yeah, but it’s obviously happy,” Lance pointed out. Both of them stared at Prince as it calmly swam around in the water, mingling with the others.

“I guess it is,” Keith conceded after a few minutes. Lance beamed at him and elbowed him in the ribs. 

“I knew you would like them! You are not half as heartless as you always pretend to be!”

“I’m not- what? I’m not pretending to be heartless!”

“You called Princess weird!” Lance whined. Yes, he still had a hard time forgiving Keith for that. Even if he was unreasonably pretty and warm.

Keith just shrugged.

“It’s true, it is different from the others. It’s weird.”

“It’s _not!”_

“It’s not a bad weird though,” Keith added, completely ignoring Lance’s protest. Okay, maybe he had a point, it was a little weird that it had five dots instead of four. It was a good weird though.

“A good weird,” Lance repeated out loud. Keith looked amused but didn’t say anything else.

After another few minutes, Lance put the jellyfish back. Keith let out a yawn and told him he’d be going to bed, while Lance kept smiling at the jellyfish. Today had been a good day. He felt peaceful to his very core and wasn’t surprised that Keith’s smile was the last thing on his mind.

It was pretty, after all. Nothing else.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shhh, don't worry Lance, I can't throw a fishing rod either, we can be failures together.
> 
> I did a crappy (like, really crappy) layout of Lance's house. If you are interested you can find it [here](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152084524868/a-crappy-layout-of-lances-house-from-my-fic-magic). And in case you were wondering, [these](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelia_aurita) are the jellyfish Lance keeps as pets! Nope, they really don't sting, it's pretty awesome actually!! :D I don't really remember where I met them but I did. I met them and pet them and they are cool :P
> 
> ALSO! OKAY PEOPLE LISTEN UP THE MOST AMAZING JUST HAPPENED: I INSPIRED PEOPLE TO DRAW SOMETHING. ME. THIS FIC. THIS IS INCREDIBLE LOOK:  
> ● [a super awesome drawing of the boat scene](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152285695658/deviant-danni-poor-keith-doesnt-know-what-to-do)! It's beautiful and perfect ; - ; I really can't thank the artist enough for that, go [check out her tumblr](http://deviant-danni.tumblr.com/)!  
> ● [Keith and his jellyfish](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/157276490483/astorytotell-keiths-stupid-mullet-s-fic-magic)! It's so amazing like wow. W o w. I'm left speechless. Go visit [the artist's tumblr](http://brobuddypal.tumblr.com/)!! :D  
> ● [Lance, Keith, the jellyfish and some doodles of the boat scene](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/161162790973/hello-there-here-are-the-doodles-i-made-in-class)! The designs are amazing and the doodles are suuuuuuper cute ; - ; Visit [the artist's tumblr](http://orange-potato-peel.tumblr.com/) as well!!


	5. Romantic feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith visit a village and Keith learns a little thing about himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THERE IS MORE ART EVERYONE---  
>  \- [here we have witch Lance](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152107738418/knightnurastar-so-this-is-6-or-7th-day-straight) inspired by my story. The art is amazing ~~and I inspired it holy shit??~~ so you should definitely check it out. [Here is the tumblr of the artist](http://knightnurastar.tumblr.com/)!  
>  \- [here is another magician Lance](http://aminoapps.com/p/l5oks) inspired by my story!! He's so pretty,,,, like, so _so_ pretty.  
>  \- [here is Lance talking to his jellyfish](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152161176373/deviant-danni-art-for-a-voltron-fanfic-that-im)! It's like, the most perfect thing ever. Go check it out, you definitely won't regret it. [Here is the tumblr of the artist](http://deviant-danni.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> I'm speechless and amazed and can't thank you guys often enough. You are wonderful <3 I hope you keep enjoying the story! If there's anyone else that draws something inspired by this please let me know. I will literally love you forever ;A;

“Hey Lance.”

“Hmm?”

Keith fiddled a little with his knife, unsure of how to ask the question. “Where exactly are you going when you go on your… walks?”

Lance looked up from the bag he was packing and shot Keith a surprised look. Self-consciously Keith put his knife on the table. “You’ve been going there quite often.”

“Actually not that often, I used to go there way more, as in, daily,” Lance replied and went back to packing his stuff. “I’m just visiting some tiny villages near the beach. Their living conditions there are… less than ideal.”

“So you’re helping them?” Keith wanted to know. Lance usually disappeared for the whole day, what was he doing all that time? 

“Not with work. I disguise myself as someone else and then distribute the potions.”

_Just do it,_ Keith encouraged himself. _Just ask him._

“You sell them?”

_Just go for it._

Lance snorted. “Yeah, sure, sell them when they can’t even buy themselves a proper dinner. I’m _distributing_ them, giving them away, handing them out for free, whatever you want to call it.”

_Now_. Lance was finishing up, he would head out any moment. _Do it now!_

“Can I come with you?”

There. He had said it.

Lance froze up, then gave him a half-surprised, half-shocked look. “You want to come with me?”

“That’s what I just said, yes.” Keith covered his nerves up with annoyance. “So. Can I?”

Lance kept blinking at him a few more times, then shrugged half-heartedly. “I guess. I mean, we’d have to disguise you too and I’m not sure whether my light magic-” He cut himself off. Keith tried with all his might not to snap at him. It was just a simple question! Yes or no! “I think Shiro’s secondary affinity was light! Hey, this might actually work. Let me just call Pidge over to keep Shiro some company and we’ll work on your disguise.”

“Sure, whatever,” Keith breathed. He had said yes. His shoulders dropped in relief and he picked his knife up again. Despite them not having crossed any invisible lines lately Keith was always unsure when it came to asking about topics Lance didn’t talk much about. 

A few minutes later Lance dragged Keith towards Shiro’s room. Shiro was still asleep when they entered, last night had been the first night he had went to bed at the same time as Keith did, and Lance whirled around to him. His twinkling eyes spoke of mischief.

“So, any preferences on how you want to look?” he whispered. 

Keith didn’t really understand the question. How he wanted to look? Not Galran, preferably? His blank stare probably clued Lance in that he had no idea how to answer.

“Alright, I’ll just go for what I think you look like without the curse. You can tell me later whether I was right.” Before Keith could protest, he had grabbed his hand and put his other hand onto Shiro. His eyes fell closed and Keith tightened his jaw so that he didn’t say anything stupid again like ‘your eyes are really pretty’. It still haunted him in his sleep. What had he been _thinking?!_

After a decidedly longer time than Lance usually took to perform his spells he opened his eyes again and looked at Keith. Hard. Just when Keith wanted to yell at him to stop staring, he grinned and flashed a thumbs up instead. 

Confused, Keith looked down at himself. He let out a tiny gasp.

Whoever’s body he was in, it wasn’t his own. His skin wasn’t purple anymore but it wasn’t white either. It had a dark brown shade, several shades darker than Lance and Keith could make out bulging muscles at his upper arms. 

Lance really thought he looked like this?! 

A soft snicker yanked Keith back to reality. “You look scandalized,” Lance murmured. Not leaving Keith any time to reply, he placed his hand onto Shiro again. After a few moments the air around him began to flicker and blur - once everything had returned to focus Lance was gone and in his place stood a tall, old man with pale skin and grey eyes. 

“How did you do that?!”

“Shhhhhh,” Lance replied and pointed at Shiro. Keith rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut until they were in the kitchen again. 

“So, how did you do that?”

“Light magic,” Lance replied and took his bag. Then he thought better of it and threw it at Keith. “You carry it, you are the young guy.”

“I’m nineteen,” Keith deadpanned. He remembered clearly that Pidge had told him that Lance was nineteen too.

“Well, you look like… uh, twenty five, I guess? And I look sixty, so I win. Suck it up and carry your shame like the loser you are!” 

“Did you just insult your own potions?” Keith never got a reply. Instead Lance dragged him out of the backdoor towards the forest where they started wandering south-west. There was no street or footpath to lead the way but Lance seemed to know exactly where he was going. 

“How long do we have to walk for?” Keith broke the silence after a few moments.

“Uh… a while? I never bothered to measure the time, I only ever go there on my own and no one expects me back to a certain time so I just… roll with it. Today we’ll visit a village that’s a lot farther away from the rest but we will also _only_ visit that one so I think we’ll be back before sunset.” 

Lance usually returned quite a while after the sun had set but apparently he also usually visited more than one village. Assuming that he didn’t decide to visit only one because Keith was with him, this village had to be at least a few hours of walking away. 

What were they supposed to do all this time?

“You getting tired already?”

“I don’t think I can get tired from walking,” Keith replied honestly. He had gotten better at ignoring the irritating, teasing tone in Lance’s voice and mentally congratulated himself for it.

Lance didn’t seem too amused. “What do you mean you can’t get tired from walking?”

Keith shrugged. “This Galra body is a lot stronger than a normal human body. I wouldn’t get tired from walking around at this speed.”

“Oh, now we’re bragging, huh?” Lance drawled. Keith shot him a dirty look.

“I’m just answering your questions. It’s not my fault that I’m better at that than you are!”

“Wait what? You think you’re better at answering questions than I am?”

Considering that Lance ignored any questions that he didn’t like answering? “Hell yeah I am.”

“Oh, it’s _on_ now.” Keith suppressed the small smile that wanted to sneak onto his face. “What do you want to know?”

“What’s going to happen when we’ll reach the village?”

Lance furrowed his brows. “You’ll see when we get there.”

“And there we have it. You’re terrible at this,” Keith stated, not being able to suppress his smirk completely. That had to be the least telling answer Lance could give. Next to completely ignoring the question, of course.

“I am not terrible at this! You are just terrible at thinking of good questions!”

“Oh, and your questions are better?” Keith asked and quirked an eyebrow. 

“Yes, they are. I ask you stuff like…” Lance trailed off, he evidently hadn’t thought of anything yet. That was just like him, always talking before thinking. What an idiot.

He shouldn’t feel compelled to smile at the thought. 

“…like?”

“Like… what do you really look like?” He snapped his fingers in a way too self-satisfied way. Keith could feel his eyes rolling without even making the conscious decision to do so.

“Definitely not like this,” he responded drily and held out his arm. Honestly? He still wasn’t quite over how buff Lance imagined him.

“Your answers are shitty too!”

“I’m just imitating you! Do you seriously want to know what I look like?”

There was a beat of silence. Then: “Well, yeah.” Lance sheepishly rubbed a hand against his neck. “I mean, I don’t know what your curse breaking condition is so I doubt I’m ever going to see you the way you were before.” Keith ignored the pain in his chest and kept listening to Lance instead. “I guess I’m just curious?”

Lance probably deserved an answer to his question even if it wouldn’t make any difference in the end. They had been getting along lately, so maybe it was time to open up a little more…? 

The thought made him grimace. No way. As nice as Lance could be sometimes he wasn’t quite ready yet to talk to him about… stuff. Not about the curse. Definitely not about himself being a halfbreed. 

But he could probably satisfy a little of his curiosity. They were… kind of friends, after all. Just when the silence between them started to stretch a little too long Keith began talking.

“I’m smaller than this, around as tall as you are. I've less muscles too.” Keith gestured to his bulging biceps. Yes, he worked out regularly and yes, he was toned but he most definitely _didn’t_ look like this. “Black hair. My eyes are dark. Um… I’m pretty pale, I guess. A little paler than Shiro.” Lance whistled at that, then laughed.  


“Well, good thing that you are not currently looking like that, you’d be sunburned within seconds. Just imagine Shiro out in the sun!” Keith silently agreed with him and hated himself for seeing something positive in this fucked up body of his. Sure, he had only been able to save Shiro because he was a Galra but- 

_Keith, this is what you are._

He clenched his jaw and chased the images of the witch out of his thoughts. 

“You know,” Lance kept talking, “it’s kind of hard to imagine you with pale skin. The purple thing you’ve going on is so dark, I just can’t see it.” Lance turned around to study him closely, narrowing his eyes at him. It was almost as if he could see right through the light spell. Maybe he could?

“Nope. I really can’t see it. Seems weird.”

Keith shrugged, what was he supposed to say to that? 

“But I like your eyes, and I bet they wouldn't be too different if you were human, so I guess that’s a win.”

Lance shot him a grin, then he turned his head forward again and kept walking. For a moment Keith froze in his tracks, then he tried to catch up as fast as possible. Had Lance really just said what he thought he did…? But his eyes were Galran! They glowed in the dark and didn’t have any pupils and were _yellow_ , for god’s sake! What was there to like? And what the fuck did he mean that they wouldn't be too different if he were human?!

He knew he was still wearing his startled and dumbfounded expression when Lance turned his head again and send him a sly smirk over his shoulder. “And hey, I’m not the only one that likes someone's eyes, right?”

Oh _god_. Why was he like this?! He was never going to let him live that down, was he? Keith tried his best not to blush and just knew he looked constipated instead. Well, at least he didn’t have to think about his appearance anymore. 

“It’s the color! Okay? They’re glowing! Swirling!” _It’s alive, it’s like the ocean itself, it’s like magic in its purest form._ “It’s… it’s pretty!” He defended himself. 

Lance laughed. “You know, I seem to notice a pattern with you. You like glowing things, huh?”

Did he? Maybe. Keith didn’t really have a chance to see a lot of glowing things in his life that weren’t associated with the sinister purple of the Galra. He gave a noncommittal hum and pushed the thought of his own creepy eyes away. Lance liked them, they couldn’t be that bad. Right?

“It’s fine, it’s fine, you don’t have to be embarrassed by it,” Lance teased.

“I’m not,” Keith answered automatically. 

“So you do admit that you like glowy things?” 

“I… guess. As long as they are not Galran.” Lance’s grimace told Keith that he could relate. He tried to find some comfort in their shared opinions but everything it made him feel was uncomfortable. As far as Lance knew he only looked like this because he was cursed. Lance thought he was human and that was probably the only reason he could afford to say that he liked his eyes. He probably tried to make Keith feel better.

Would Lance hate him if he knew the truth about him?

Since when did he care so much about what Lance thought about him?

As if on cue, lots of situations pushed themselves into his mind. Lance getting angry about Keith not telling him about his injured hand earlier. Lance genuinely admiring one of his wood carvings. Lance inviting him to help him with his potions again. Lance coming home from his walks with an extra pillow - for Keith. Lance handing him the wrong spice while cooking. Lance shivering in the water but still laughing as if he had the time of his life. Lance throwing an arm around him while talking him into adopting a jellyfish. Lance, Lance, Lance. 

Why did he think so much about Lance?

“Yeah, all the Galra stuff has an evil glow. As if the light itself is trying to kill you already. Trying to suck out your spiritual energy or some shit.” Another grimace. “Let’s not talk about that.” 

Keith was just fine with that. He decided to change topics. 

“How did you do that earlier? Change our appearances, I mean.” ‘Light magic’ wasn’t really a satisfying answer for him.

Lance lit up, then dimmed down again. He shot him a hesitant look, then shrugged. It was confusing to see this many emotions on the face of an old man. “I can use other magic besides water magic. It’s just a lot more difficult if I’m not really… compatible with them. Light magic isn’t really my thing.”

“Really? But you seem like the type,” Keith answered offhandedly. He was much more focused on the fact that Lance had managed to transform two fully grown man into someone else entirely despite it being ‘not really his thing’. He was _powerful_. Lance was a water magician and he had managed to pretty much bring Shiro back from the dead, but what else was he able to do?

“Why?” Lance demanded curiously. Keith shook himself out of his thoughts.

“Why what?”

“Why do you think that I’m the type to be good with light magic?”

Keith blinked a little, then gestured between the two of them. “You just transformed us into someone else. The camouflaging spell on the house is also light magic, isn’t it?”

“It is!” Lance confirmed. He actually seemed much happier than when Keith had incidentally started the conversation. Keith wasn’t sure what had brought the change on but hey, he would gladly take it anyway.

“And you just… seem like a light guy.”  The moment Keith said this, he knew it was a mistake. Lance would ask why and then-

“Yeah but _why?”_

_Shit_.

“I don’t- uh, you just always seem so… happy. And smiling. Like- light?” Keith offered. It sounded even stupider out loud than in his head.

Lance smirked devilishly. It looked decidedly weird on the face of a grandpa. “I didn’t think you’d pay that much attention to me, Keith,” he drawled.

“I don’t. You are just hard to miss, also like light.”

Wait, that sounded a lot less like an insult than Keith had indented. He swallowed and shot Lance a glance from the corner of his eyes. The teasing would be back any moment now.

But Lance’s smirk had faded and gotten replaced by a real smile. Huh. Weird. Keith felt a warmth spreading through him and focused his attention on the trees in front of him again, trying to distract himself from it. 

“Well,” Lance spoke, “affinities don’t have anything to do with your character. At least in my opinion. My mom always said that there are certain shared characteristics for each kind of affinity but she _also_ still believes that Pidge is a sweet, innocent angel so I don’t trust her too much on that.” Keith couldn’t help but chuckle a little.

“So, water is your main affinity?” At Lance’s enthusiastic nod a new smile creeped onto his face. He was - Keith liked seeing him so enthusiastic. It wasn’t the fake cheerful farce he sometimes put up to annoy him, this was genuine excitement. And Keith liked it. Maybe a little too much?

He blamed himself being distracted by Lance for not thinking about his next words. “Is that why you are so bad with fire?”

Lance’s enthusiastic behavior toned down quite a bit and Keith flinched. Right. Fire magic was a no-go. He was about to apologize and take the question back when Lance sighed and shook his head. For some reason he didn’t seem to be as depressed as last time he had mentioned it, even if he was by no means happy. 

“No. It’s a common misconception that opposite elements are hard to master when really it’s just a being-born-with-it thing. And I just wasn’t born with an affinity for fire.” A tiny pause. “It’s nothing I could help.” His words sounded hollow, as if he had repeated them one too many times already, trying to convince himself that they are true. Keith didn’t like it at all so he tried to guide the conversation into another direction.

“Opposites? Then what’s the opposite to light?”

Lance’s smile was back as he brushed a low hanging branch out of the way. “Sound! Sound is actually my third strongest compatibility, directly after wind, in case you were wondering. I can rank all my magical affinities pretty easily: first water, then wind, then sound, then light, then earth and then fire. I’m okay with sound still but light magic is kinda hard for me. Earth magic is really hard and fire - yeah, that one’s impossible.”

He frowned a little and picked up his pace. Keith adapted easily, not daring to interrupt. “Most of this affinity stuff doesn’t really matter for you though, magicians are the only ones that can rank them like this. For everyone else, for _you_ , only the first two elements matter at all. They are called the primary and secondary affinities. You guys obviously can’t use them but they are definitely there. Because they are your strongest affinities I’m able to sense and even use them if I touch you.” The more Lance talked the better his mood seemed to get. It was adorable, really.

“You sure know a lot about that, huh,” Keith smiled.

“Well, _duh!_ I spent a lot of time researching everything about magic when I found out I was- wait, I’m rambling, aren’t I?” His mood seemed to drop again. What was up with that? “Sorry for that. I can get kind of… out of hand when it’s about magic.” Keith felt his brows furrow.

“No, keep going. It’s interesting.”

Lance send him an disbelieving look. “Are you sure?” When Keith caught sight of the doubts in his eyes he had to remind himself that it would be weird to reach out and place a comforting hand against his face. And not only because he was currently looking like an ashen, sixty years old man. God, he had some weird thoughts lately.

“Definitely. How can I find out about my primary and secondary affinities?” 

Lance beamed at him and spread his arms. “Just like this! It’s ridiculously easy, any magician can feel them as soon as they touch you. Uh, if there’s no magician around you are fucked though. Primary and secondary affinities are _magical_ abilities and since you guys lack the potential to use them it’s impossible for you to figure them out on your own.” 

Keith blinked a little, then looked at Lance warily. “So you know what my primary and secondary affinities are?”

“Sure I do! Take a guess.”

“Huh? But didn’t you just tell me that they are completely random?!” Lance threw an arm around Keith’s shoulders and dragged him a little closer, making them walk awkwardly hunched together. Still, Keith wouldn’t be the one to pull away from the contact. He enjoyed it too much for that.

"Yes, they are. But come on, indulge me a little. I wanna know what goes on in that head of yours." Keith was tempted to roll his eyes but he couldn't focus. On anything, really.

“Uh. I don’t know. Wind? Sound?” He was just throwing words out there, his mind was concentrated on Lance’s close proximity. Something was decidedly wrong with him. He shouldn’t _enjoy_ walking this uncomfortably and yet here he was, doing just that. Enjoying walking with an awkwardly twisted back and stumbling over branches.

“Hey, not bad! Wind is actually your secondary affinity! Just like me! I remember how mom told me once that people with the same secondary affinity tend to get along because they subconsciously share the same values or something.”

“More evidence you shouldn’t trust her,” Keith deadpanned. Lance fake gasped and let go of his shoulder to grab at his chest. Keith tried not to mourn the weird walking position.

“I am offended! Deeply offended! I thought there was something between us!”

“Mutual dislike?” Keith offered.

Lance’s laughter rang through the forest and Keith could feel a smile tugging at his lips. It was infectious and warm and Keith felt like melting right into it.

“You, my buddy, have developed a dry sense of humour that I could get used to. Just keep going and maybe one day you’ll actually reach my level.”

“Well damn. I wasn’t aware I was getting this bad.” 

“Now you are just being mean!” Lance exclaimed but he was laughing. Still laughing. Because of Keith. Keith could feel his cheeks hurting from smiling so hard. Wait, when had he started smiling this much? 

“Alright, enough of that, take another guess. What is your primary affinity?”

“Earth?” Lance shook is head. “I don’t think it’s water, if it was you probably would have said something already.” Lance’s sheepish expression confirmed his suspicion. “Fire?”

“There you go! You are a primary fire and secondary wind type!” 

Primary fire, huh.

“…what am I supposed to do with this knowledge now?” 

“I don’t know. You wanted to know. You’re not a magician so _you_ can’t do anything with it. I can borrow your affinities though - kind of like, uh, using you as a bridge or something? Like, I would have to be touching you but then my wind magic would increase. That’s what I did with Shiro, his secondary affinity is light. If it wasn’t for me borrowing his affinity I wouldn’t have been able to cast these spells in the first place.”

A question was right on Keith’s lips but he swallowed it before he could blurt it out. He didn’t think that asking Lance about fire magic again was a good idea now. “Then what is Shiro’s primary type?” he asked instead.

“Wind,” Lance replied happily. “Pidge is primarily sound and secondarily earth. Hunk is primarily earth and secondarily water.”

“And the jellyfish?” Keith joked. 

“Water. Primary and secondary affinity both,” Lance replied seriously. Keith kept quiet, trying to figure out whether Lance was serious. The shit eating grin he shot into his direction a few moments later was answer enough. Asshole.

“Well, I guess that’s why you have so much in common. Y’know, glowy stuff, no brain…”

“Hey! Rude! Do I have to remind you who just explained the basics about affinities to you?”

“Are you saying there’s even more to it?!” Keith couldn’t help his surprise. Just how long had it taken Lance figure all this stuff out? With human magicians being supposedly extinct for centuries already there couldn’t have been much information lying around.

“Sure there is! And I’d love to explain even more but we’re getting close now. Time to invent our backstory.”

“…backstory?”

“Yeah!” Lance nodded and patted against the bag on Keith’s side. “It has always only been me and my faithful sidekick, the good old leather bag. It’ll come as quite a surprise that it apparently isn’t as faithful as I always implied.” 

Keith resisted the urge to retort something childish and frowned at the bag instead. “Maybe you can just say that I’m your nephew or something? And I’m helping you out today because…”

“…my back hurts terribly. I’ve already used that excuse to apologize for not coming more often. I used to come to this village every six days but now I haven’t visited it in over two weeks.”

“But you’ve been going on these trips every few days?”

“Well, yeah. But I already told you that there’s more than one village around here, idiot,” Lance replied. Keith felt a little stupid for forgetting about that.

“Alright, from now on you have to keep quiet. There are some Galra guards around here to keep the people from leaving the village. Use hand signs when you want to tell me something.” Lance sounded serious for once so Keith nodded quietly. “Good. I’ll also change the light spell to make us invisible while we are crossing the border but I’ll turn us back into grandpa and nephew as soon as we are in the village. We need to be able to talk to the villagers after all. Follow my lead.”

Keith started nodding instinctively and then the air around them began flickering again. He noticed the problem a little too late. _“Wait,_ Lance, invisible-?!”

But Lance was gone.

“Fuck, Lance, where are you?!” Keith half-whispered and extended his arm towards where Lance had last been standing. He hit something that felt a suspiciously lot like a shoulder.

“Wha- shit, Keith, careful with your claws! That hurt!”

_“I can’t see you!”_

“What do you- oh, right. Close your eyes.” 

Just like the day Keith had first met Lance, he closed his eyes and felt a hand settle over them. There were a few moments of silence, decidedly longer than on that day, then Lance gasped for air and let his hand fall away. 

“Okay, fine, you can open them again.”

“Are you - Lance! You look normal again!” Except not really. The grin he sported was too tired, his skin was a little too pale. He looked… exhausted. “Are you okay?” Keith asked tentatively. 

“Peachy,” Lance answered. “I put another spell over your eyes that allows you to see through this illusion. The problem is that you won’t be able to see my old man disguise anymore, be careful about what you call me.”

“What _do_ I call you?” Had they discussed codenames yet? Keith didn’t remember. And Lance really didn’t look well.

“Blue,” Lance said with a grin. Keith narrowed his eyes at him.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the worst undercover name I’ve ever heard. There is no way people will believe that your actual name is Blue.”

“Of course not! It’s forbidden to break into mining villages and everyone knows that.”

“Wait. Mining villages?” But Lance continued as if he had never heard anything.

“So no matter what name I would give them, it’d be a fake one. And I think it’s easier for everyone involved to make that clear from the start. You are going to be Red!” Keith could barely keep up with him.

“Wha- I’m Red, okay, so what was that about mining villages?” His question was met with silence and Keith felt frustration building up inside of him. “Lance-”

“Blue from now on.”

“Fine, _Blue_ ,” Keith spat out. “What is all this talk about mines-”

“Quiet! We need to hurry, _now.”_ Not waiting for Keith’s response, Lance started moving towards the village. Keith felt himself scowl at Lance’s behavior but hurried to catch up, he couldn’t afford to be caught by the Galra. Besides he would probably see soon enough what Lance meant when he had talked about ‘mining villages’.

A few sprints and holding-completely-still-moments later, Lance dragged him behind a large house. They had passed the border successfully - one time a Galra soldier had walked _right past them_ and Keith could have sworn that his heartbeat would out them - and were now in a part of the village that consisted of a lot of similar looking buildings. Storehouses? Before he could ask Lance, Lance had already placed a hand over his mouth and another finger at his lips. Keith scowled but got the message. Keep quiet, they were not out of danger yet.

Apparently satisfied with what he saw on Keith’s face, Lance let go of him and closed his eyes. His face took on the familiar slack expression that Keith associated with him doing magic... only that this time nothing happened. No flickering air, nothing. 

Lance opened his eyes again, suddenly even paler than before. He swayed a little on his feet and Keith immediately reached out to steady him by his shoulders. “You - god, Lance, what are you-”

“Shhh!” Lance interrupted him angrily. He didn’t pull out of Keith’s grasp for another few moments though. When he did, Keith almost didn’t want to let go of him.

Lance was having none of that, he grabbed his shirt and pulled him over to the door of the house. A quick look around confirmed that there was no Galra nearby, then he pushed it open and pulled Keith in behind him.

The house, Keith noticed, was no storehouse. It was a giant bedroom.

Old, tattered blankets lay everywhere and dirty humans with even dirtier clothes were speaking to each other in hushed tones. They had all turned quiet when Lance had opened the door but as soon as they caught sight of him brilliant smiles lit up their faces. Keith couldn’t help but wonder what Lance had done to get this reaction from them.

As soon as the door fell closed, the children between the people came running up to him.

“Blue! Where have you been all this time?”

“Is your back better?”

“I brought you a present to say thank you for helping mom! It’s just a pretty stone but last time you said you liked pretty stones.”

“I brought you a stone, too!”

“Hey Blue, who is that over there?”

The atmosphere in the hall had suddenly become much lighter and everyone seemed to crowd around Lance. They adored him and trusted him, that much was obvious. Keith felt a little tug at his heart and realized all of a sudden that he was smiling.

Why was he smiling?

“Alright youngsters, make way for the old man!” Lance said in a fake-gravelly voice and made a shooing motion with his hands. Then he grabbed Keith’s arm. “This is my nephew, he’s helping me carry your stuff because no, my back isn’t completely healed yet. That’s what old age is for you, eh?” Lance winked and Keith just barely managed to suppress an eye roll. He had to be aware that his stupid voice didn’t sound old at all, right?

“If you are not feeling well you shouldn’t have come here. It’s dangerous, you should get well first,” a young woman spoke and helped dragging a little child away from Lance’s leg. Lance grinned at her.

“Nonsense! I’m totally fine. Besides Red here is carrying everything, so I just have to focus on getting us in and out again. Right?” Lance turned towards him.

“Right,” Keith nodded. He couldn’t help but notice that Lance’s smile was still a little strained.

“Right. So, any emergencies today? Let’s get started on those. I’ll leave Red to distribute the potions to everyone else.”

“Wait, what?!” Keith interjected. He couldn’t even remember the names of half of them! He had just followed Lance’s instructions when they had brewed them, nothing else. 

But Lance seemed to have faith in him. He smiled and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Just hand out the ones that you know about. I’ll join you later, I have to heal some emergencies first. Don’t give the flasks and pouches away, they have cups they can drink out of. Never more than one kind of potion for one person and don’t give them more than one third of their cup, maximum. In total you can use five flasks of the same kind, not more, or the other halls won’t have enough for themselves.” Keith’s head was swirling with instructions but then Lance was leaving with a flask full of water and he got crowded by thin, dirty people instead.

“Uh- I don’t-” he started and everyone immediately quieted down, watching him expectantly with cups in their hands. What was he supposed to do? How could Lance leave him alone in here?!

The girl from before approached him and send him a calming smile. “Do you need any help? I think I’ve seen Blue do this often enough to know a little about the potions.” Keith nodded gratefully and the girl turned towards the people around him.

“Alright. Let’s make this easier for Red. Health stabilizers left, nutritional supplies in the middle and actual medicine to the right.” The people listened to her and hurried to sort themselves into three different groups while she approached Keith once more. “Can I see the flasks?”

Keith slipped the bag over his shoulder and opened it. There were a lot of bottles and jars and flasks in there, he honestly didn’t even remember which potion was in which container. He raised his head to look at the girl but she seemed just as clueless as him. 

“Maybe we can just… open them and take a look?” she finally suggested. Not being able to think of anything better, Keith opened the first bottle and smelled at it.

_Disgusting_.

His face must have said it all because the girl let out a laugh. “That’s gotta be the health stabilizer. Let’s hand that one out first.” She turned towards the group on the left and showed him how much liquid he should pour into their cups, then left him to do his job and went through the other flasks, sorting them after content. 

It took them quite a while until they were finished and Keith didn’t even realize how much time had passed until Lance stumbled back to them. He looked even worse than before, his face extremely pale and a faint film of sweat coating his forehead. Keith could feel the steep angle of his eyebrows as he urgently pushed Lance to the ground.

“What were you doing?! You look awful!” he hissed at him.

“There was a broken bone,” Lance whispered back. He looked as if he might lose consciousness at any moment but refused to stay still for long. Instead he accepted the stones that the tiny children handed him before selecting some of the jars and handing them to the girl before dragging Keith over to the next hall.

There were three halls that they would visit in total. Looking around the village there were ten more around but Lance told him that they were empty. Apparently all the people here worked as miners and they had a rotation system that left three out of thirteen halls each day to recover from their work. Not that a day was enough to heal a broken bone but it was the Galra’s way of crushing their spirits. ‘It could be worse for you guys and if you don’t listen to us, we won’t hesitate to make it worse.’

Keith had to actively remind himself not to attack the Galra whenever they came across a patrol on their way from one hall to the next. 

They had only half finished the last one, when Lance suddenly grabbed Keith’s arm and looked at him with an extremely strained expression.“We have to get out now,” he breathed, words barely there.

Keith didn’t think twice about it, he emptied the bag with the potions and frantically explained how much the people should use for themselves and how much they had to smuggle into the other halls once night came. He then dragged Lance out of the hall and back to the border, careful to avoid Galras at any cost. One time he had to lift Lance up and sprint behind the next house before they got discovered. It had been a close call and it took him almost a minute to stop shaking and keep walking again.

Then they reached the border. Lance whimpered pathetically but instructed Keith to stand still so that he could change their light spell again.

He looked terrible. Horrible even. His breathing came uneven and his face was more ashen than brown. Keith never should have allowed him to keep going for this long. Was it the magic? Did all magic do this to him? Or was he sick?

Lance swayed on his feet and almost fell over at least two times before Keith took him and hoisted him onto his hip. He cradled him much like a mother would cradle a crying child and carried him past the Galran soldiers out into the forest. The whole time Lance never even once made a sound of protest, worrying Keith more than he would have liked to admit.

As soon as they were a safe distance from the village, Keith sat Lance down onto a tree trunk. “Lance? Are you alright? What’s wrong?”

“Too much magic,” Lance whimpered and let his head fall forward against Keith’s shoulders. Keith frowned but protectively placed a hand against this upper back.  


“We are far away from the village. You can lift the spell now. Will that help?”

A weak noise of confirmation had Keith placing Lance’s hand onto his shoulder. 

“Come on, lift the spell, Lance.”

And Lance did. Keith could feel the exact moment the spell was gone, Lance shuddered and took in a deep breath. He kept leaning against Keith for a few moments, then he straightened himself out again. 

“Okay. I’m okay now.” He didn’t _look_ okay. “Let’s… go home. I just wanna sleep,” Lance said. Keith almost wanted to force him to let Keith carry him again but settled for walking half a step behind, arm always extended to catch him in case he stumbled. Thankfully he didn’t - but he also didn’t talk at all on the entire way home. When Keith asked him about it, he grumbled something about a headache.

That’s when Keith remembered that Lance had told him about this whole magic exhaustion stuff. And that there was a tea for it. As soon as they entered the house, Keith pressed him down onto a chair at the table and made him the tea. Lance watched him, looking vaguely amused by it.

“You remember the ingredients?”

Keith didn’t say anything but kept working. He wasn’t entirely sure how much of everything went into the tea, the one and only time Keith had watched him prepare it Lance's movements had almost been too fast to follow, but he could remember the gist of it. Lance didn’t complain about any of the herbs he used and just gratefully accepted the cup when Keith handed it to him, so he couldn’t have been too far off the mark. There was silence as Keith waited for Lance to finish the tea.

“Oh my god,” Lance finally moaned and let his head fall to the table. Keith jumped a little. “Sorry, but I’m never doing that again. Nu-uh. Not even with Shiro’s help. Light magic is _killing_ me and there is _no way in hell_ I’m ever taking you with me again.”

“Yeah,” Keith agreed. He felt guilty for asking to tag along. If he had never asked, Lance never would have looked like this…

As if sensing his negative thoughts, Lance raised his head and narrowed his eyes at him. “Don’t even go there, Keith,” he threatened. Keith pretended not to know what he was talking about.

“Not sure what you are implying but I’m not.”  


“Hm.” Lance kept staring at him but let the topic drop. “Anyway, I’ll go to sleep now. I feel as if I just crossed the ocean swimming. I don’t think I have legs anymore…”

Keith kicked him lightly under the table. Lance winced. “Okay never mind, I definitely still have them.” 

Keith rolled his eyes. “Come on, you can’t sleep here.”

“Why not? It’s comfortable.” Lance yawned and let his head drop onto the wood. Keith furrowed his brows.

“It’s the kitchen table. There’s no way it’s comfortable.”

“But it is!” Lance insisted vehemently. Keith sighed and lightly kicked him again.

“Get up, Lance.”

“Don’t wanna…”

_“Lance.”_ Lance whined again but finally got up. Keith placed his cup aside to clean it later. “Tomorrow you will thank me for this.”

“I don’t think I will. I hate you,” Lance mumbled. His arm brushed against Keith’s as he passed him to go into his room. It tingled… Keith slapped a hand against it to get it to stop tingling. It didn’t really work but at least he tried, right?

With Lance gone, Keith decided to go talk to Shiro. He needed to sort his thoughts about what he had just learned. He had always known that the Galra were cruel but the way they treated these villagers… Keith shuddered when he remembered how Lance had told him about a broken arm. They were supposed to work in mines despite broken arms?

And, on a completely different note, would Lance be okay after using this much light magic?

Noise. There were voices coming out of Shiro’s room.

Keith’s hand automatically went for his knife before he suddenly realized that he recognized them. Shiro and Pidge. Right, Lance had called her over to keep Shiro company for the day. Due to Lance’s magical exhaustion they had been back earlier than expected.

Hesitating a bit, Keith knocked at the door. The voices quieted, then there were footsteps until Pidge finally opened the door with a confused face. She brightened up when she took sight of him.

“Keith! You guys are back already?” 

“Uh… yeah. Lance kind of exhausted himself and we had to go home.”

Pidge seemed surprised at that, then cocked her head and grimaced. “Too much light magic, go figure. I _told_ him that disguising two people would be too much for him to handle.”

Keith pressed his lips together. It was his fault.

Would he be okay?

“Alright, come in. I’ll check up on him and leave, I have stuff to do. When Lance called I was actually working with dad and Matt on a new wardrobe. Not really my favorite thing to do but the customer seemed a little impatient when he expected us to finish it within two days.” She kicked the door a little further open and started packing up what seemed to be some kind of game. When she finished, she gave Shiro a small wave. “Bye Shiro! Maybe I’ll bring Matt next time. He still doesn’t know why I’m over at Lance’s so often these days.” Grinning and patting Keith’s arm one last time, she went to check up on Lance. 

“Bye Pidge!” Keith and Shiro called after her in unison. Then Keith turned towards Shiro and studied him critically. Shiro was sitting on the floor cross-legged, leaning against the bed but seemingly content otherwise.

“How was your trip?” Shiro asked politely. Keith mimicked his position and sat down across from him.

“Fine, I guess. We went to a village a few hours from here. It was…” Not sure how to finish that sentence, Keith let it trail off.

“Exhausting?” Shiro suggested. Keith shook his head and shifted a little.

“It was horrible, Shiro. The village was… all of its people were kept in storage halls. They looked malnourished and obviously didn’t get any medical attention whatsoever. If it wasn’t for Lance,” Keith took a deep breath, “if it wasn’t for Lance I doubt that even half of them would still be alive.”

Heavy silence settled over the room like a blanket. Keith wasn’t sure where to look and settled for picking crumbs of wood from the floor.

“The Galra’s influence reaches farther than expected,” Shiro said finally. 

“It does. I didn’t- I never would have imagined this.” Keith’s expression softened when his thoughts took off into another direction. “But you should have seen the people’s reaction to Lance. He looked like an old, half-rotten grandpa but everyone still wanted to hold his hands and give him presents. I think I brought at least twenty stones back home.”

Shiro laughed a little. “He has that kind of influence on others, doesn’t he? He makes you want to trust him.”

“He does,” Keith immediately agreed. His mind took him back to the beginning, remembering how they had constantly been fighting. There still hadn’t been a single moment in which he had doubted that Lance would kick them out before Shiro was properly healed. Had it really only been a few weeks since then?

“How is he?”

“He is… exhausted. At one point I though he would lose consciousness and we would get discovered. But he held out.” If he concentrated hard enough he could still feel Lance’s warm body pressed against his, shaking and trembling under the strain of using too much magic. He weighed less than Keith had thought… was that because he was still not used to his Galra body or was it a Lance thing?

“So he’s sleeping?” Shiro wanted to know. Keith nodded. If Lance hadn’t went to his bed on his own Keith would have forced him in there. It was his fault that Lance was in this state and he couldn’t stand it. Could this have been avoided? Was there anything he could have helped Lance with? Neither his primary nor secondary affinity was light but maybe there was something else… anything else…

“It’s my fault,” Keith whispered. Shiro didn’t say anything, so he continued. “I asked him to take me with him this morning. He could have infiltrated the village, healed the patients and make sure that everyone got their appropriate share of the potions. But I was curious and wanted to know more and now-” Shiro placed his hand on his knee, effectively shutting Keith up.

“This is not your fault. You don’t know anything about his magic, you couldn’t have known what it would do to him.” With a lot of effort, Keith managed to set his guilt aside and listen to Shiro. He knew he wasn’t doing himself any favors by blaming himself for Lance’s state, especially since he _cared_ so much. Why did he care so much?

“Keith. Didn’t Pidge say that she warned Lance about the complications he might encounter? If that wasn’t enough to stop him then he wanted you there with him.”

Shiro was… Shiro was right. Of course. Still-

“This was my idea. You didn’t see him, Shiro - I had to _carry_ him out of there. I cradled him in my arms and he didn’t even protest! He was- he looked-” This time Keith cut himself off. Why was he telling Shiro all of this?

“You are worried about him. I understand, Keith-”

“No you _don’t_ understand, you weren’t _there_ , you didn’t see his pale face and you didn’t feel how much he trembled-” Keith wasn’t aware of his voice raising until Shiro interrupted him in a stern tone.

“Keith.”

Breathing in deeply to calm himself down, Keith closed his eyes.

“It’s true that I wasn’t there. But I am here now and I haven’t seen you frantic since you brought me here. You are worried and I know that seeing Lance like this must have frightened you.” 

Frightened him?

It had _terrified_ him.

It had been a magic induced state and he hadn't had any idea on what to do. Not even the slightest clue. He hadn’t felt this helpless since he had seen Shiro lying on the street, clutching the stump where his arm should have been…

“But you know what Keith? I think you are needlessly worried.” Keith opened his mouth to protest but Shiro talked over him. “Did you see Pidge’s face when she left? She didn’t seem overly concerned. She was more annoyed than anything. I have a feeling that Lance overexerting himself like this has happened many times in the past already.”

That… made a surprising amount of sense. It would also explain the speed with which Lance could make his tea. Brushing his emotions aside for now, Keith tried to remember the day Lance had healed Shiro. He had found him passed out next to the bathtub, pale and shaking under the sun and had wrapped him up in a few blankets. Back then he hadn’t paid much attention to Lance, he had been much more concerned about Shiro, but Lance must have looked just as bad as when they had crossed the border today. And he had still been back to normal that evening. 

“I think you are right,” Keith conceded, blinking slowly. Lance would be fine, probably. 

A small grin on his face, Shiro leaned back against the bed. “Of course I am. I usually am.” Keith send him a dark look but he seemed unfazed by it. Kind of like Lance, actually. Lance had grown immune to his scowls throughout their stay.

Somehow that felt really good.

Why was he thinking so much about Lance?

“Lance’s exhaustion is not the only thing on your mind, is it?” Shiro asked after a while. Keith couldn’t help but looking at him in alarm. It was almost creepy how Shiro always knew what he was thinking.

“It’s not,” Keith admitted. “But I…” He didn’t even know what the other thing on his mind was. Lance. What _about_ Lance?

“You seem confused,” Shiro helped. 

“I am. But I’m not even sure what I am confused about. It’s just… _Lance_ …” He didn’t think that he could express his confusion any better than that. It was just _Lance_. Everything about him. But also nothing about him? What was he thinking?

Shiro’s laughter pulled him out of his thoughts. 

“What?” But Shiro only laughed harder, causing Keith to frown at him. “What is it?!”

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just that I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make that face before.”

“What face?” Keith asked immediately. He didn’t remember making a face.

“It’s inexplicable. You seem confused but happy and super annoyed at the same time. It’s hilarious, really.”

“Thank you for laughing at my misery,” Keith deadpanned. He wasn’t offended and they both knew it. Shiro’s grin just proved that.

“You’re welcome. But what about Lance?”

“If only I knew!” Keith threw his hands in the air. Suddenly he felt agitated. What was wrong with him? “I don’t know what’s with him! But there is something and I can’t - I don’t understand it!”

“Wow, seems like you’ve got it pretty bad,” Shiro said, grin fading into a smile. Keith struggled to catch on. 

“Seems I’ve got what pretty bad?”

“Don’t you like Lance?”

“Sure I do,” Keith answered, frowning. He was worried about him, that’s why he had talked to Shiro in the first place. “But I-”

“That’s not what I meant,” Shiro interrupted. “I meant that it seems as if you have feelings for him. Romantic feelings.”

It seemed like _what_.

Keith couldn’t help but stare at Shiro blankly. 

He didn’t have _romantic feelings_ for Lance. Granted, he had never had romantic feelings for anyone, so he didn’t really know how they were supposed to feel but… but there was no way that he would have them for _Lance_ of all people. Lance was… 

Lance was special. 

He was warmth and honesty. He was the soft and cool feeling of water gliding over his body, refreshing and healing. He was stupid conversations and laughter, he was watching jellyfish at night, he was bright smiles under the sun. He was strength and hope, stupid songs in the morning and warm touches on the way, he was unique-

_Holy shit._

Keith _had_ romantic feelings for Lance. For _Lance_.

He must have made a really stupid face because Shiro was laughing again. Loudly. If he laughed any louder he would probably wake Lance up. Lance, whom he had _romantic feelings_ for-

“I don’t think I can do this,” Keith said, stricken. He felt kind of ill. Could you get sick from romantic feelings?

“And I don’t think you’ve much of a choice there,” Shiro replied, still chuckling a little. He was right. Keith didn’t have a choice. Keith didn’t have a choice, but tomorrow he’d have to look at Lance and act normal despite knowing that he had _romantic feelings for him_ -

He buried his hands in his hair and got onto his feet. “Why did you tell me?!” he yelled. He shouldn’t be yelling, Lance was asleep in the room next door. Taking care to lower his voice, Keith continued. “Why did you tell me? What am I supposed to do now?!”

Shiro shrugged, still looking faintly amused. “You don’t have to do anything. You could tell him if you want to-”

_“Absolutely not.”_

“-or you could just continue as always. It doesn’t really matter. Lance isn’t going to throw us out anytime soon either way. I think he was lonely.”

The thought of Lance being lonely effectively distracted Keith. Lance didn’t seem the type to get lonely. But then again, staying out here and never meeting anyone in order to keep himself safe didn’t seem too lively either.

“And now he isn’t?” Keith wanted to know. Needed to know. He didn’t want Lance to be lonely anymore.

He knew that feeling all too well.

Shiro shrugged. “I don’t know. He might be. He might not. I don’t know him well enough to tell and I doubt that he would tell us if that was the case.” The thought of that send a little pang to Keith’s heart but he knew that Shiro was right. Lonely people don’t just admit that they are lonely.

What could he do to make sure that Lance felt less lonely?

Well, it honestly depended on what kind of loneliness he was feeling. If it was the same as Keith’s - the loneliness of knowing that you are different, of knowing that there are no others like you out there - there wasn’t much he could do. If he was lonely because he didn't have enough people to talk to… he would have to make an extra effort to talk to him from now on. Maybe he could ask him more about magic. Suddenly he remembered the day he had walked in on Shiro and Lance talking about books.

“Hey, Shiro. Lance lend you some books, didn’t he?” 

A little put off by the sudden change in topic, Shiro blinked. Then he nodded.

“Were there any books about magic?”

“Most of them included some kind of magic,” Shiro answered. Keith should have known, Lance loved everything that had to do magic. And he was always reading. Combining his two favorite things would be a logical thing to do.

“Were there any easy to read books?” Keith asked further. Shiro’s face dawned in understanding.

“I guess… most of them are still above your level though. If you had let me teach you-”

“That doesn’t matter now,” Keith cut him off, annoyed. “If they are all going to be difficult anyway, was there anything about magical exhaustion?”

Shiro studied him carefully for a moment. “No, there wasn’t,” he finally admitted. “But I haven’t read all of them either. Just the ones he left me to read. There might be something about that in the books in the living room.”

Nodding, Keith got onto his feet. Time to do some reading.

“Keith - look, I know you want to help him, but I know that reading isn’t really-”

“It doesn’t matter,” Keith said stubbornly.

“Let me finish!” Keith sighed but stopped at the doorframe. Shiro’s voice picked up again. “I know that reading isn’t really your thing and you haven’t practiced it in years. There is no guarantee you will find out anything useful and you will no doubt get frustrated with yourself. If you want to know more about magic, you should probably just ask Lance tomorrow.”

Shiro had a point but Keith had already made up his mind. “I know. And I will. But I feel as if I have to pay him back somehow. We’ve been living with him for a month now and all this time we haven’t really helped him with anything.” In fact he had even endangered him today. “You are saying he might be lonely. I think I’ve got an idea for that - Lance loves magic. You should have seen how excited he got when I asked him about magical affinities on our way to the village.” A small, private smile appeared on Keith’s face. “The least I can do for him is to show some interest in what he loves. And I won’t wait for him to wake up for that.”

Maybe he could even learn something new and ask Lance about that in the morning. Just the thought about Lance’s happy face if Keith told him about reading about magic on his own made him feel happier. 

Yes. Time to do some reading.

 

* * *

 

Two hours later Keith felt as if this had been the worst idea of his life.

At sunset, Keith felt ready to tie himself up and fling himself out into the ocean. He didn’t understand any of this, he could barely make out half of the words.

In the middle of the night, sitting in the kitchen with only two candles to keep him company, Keith snapped and threw the book against the wall. Angry and frustrated he went out, running a few laps until his muddled thoughts had cleared up a bit, before he came back and continued reading the book where he had left off.

A few hours before dawn, he nodded off. When he woke up again it was bright and his cheek hurt from where it had been pressed against the hard wood from the table. Gritting his teeth, he went back to reading. Lance wasn’t up yet and he still hadn’t really learned anything new besides what the herbs in Lance’s magical healing tea were called.

It was hard and put Keith into a sour mood but he didn’t throw any other books around. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. They were Lance’s prized possessions and he was doing all of this for Lance.

For Lance.

Clenching his jaw and ignoring his headache, Keith went back to the jumble of letters on the pages before him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope all the magic stuff at the beginning wasn't that boring! I just had to mention it sometime. World building and all that. I personally don't like this chapter all that much (I think it's my least favorite?) but the next one's gonna be good so heads up! :D
> 
> (Also yeah. That girl totally is Shay. She won't have another appearance though so I didn't name her ; - ;)


	6. The ocean's magician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a lot of discoveries are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .................enjoy :P

When Lance got into the kitchen that morning, he did a double take. Then a triple take. He closed his eyes, opened them again and pinched himself just to confirm that what he was looking at was reality.

It was. Damn. Now he was hurting.

“Owowowowow,” he whined as he shook out his arm. Keith’s head snapped up.

“Lance? What are you doing?”

“No, no, no, no, no, nu-uh, you don’t get to do this. The question is, what are _you_ doing?” Lance demanded to know and pointed at the book in front of him. Hell, _books_. There were lots of them! So many! Piles of books! Since when did Keith read?!

“Uh, reading?” Keith answered. He seemed slightly uncomfortable but Lance couldn’t bring himself to care. He threw his arms out. 

_“Since when?!”_

“Last night?” 

Lance couldn’t believe it. “You mean we got home and you just suddenly felt the urge to read? Even though you always called me a nerd for that?”

Keith hunched his shoulders awkwardly and looked away. “Not really. I just…” His face twisted up.

“You _juuuuust?”_

“I just wanted to know more about magic.”

Silence fell between them as Lance struggled to wrap his head around this new situation. “You wanted… to know more about magic?” he finally repeated. He still couldn’t quite believe what was happening. And Keith still didn’t look at him. 

“I did.”

“So you started reading books? Who are you and what have you done to Keith?!”

“Lance!” Keith finally snapped and glared at him. Lance squinted back.

“You are good. Really, really good. Your frown is very convincing, if I were anyone else you might have convinced me. But no such luck, buddy. Who are you and what have you done to Keith?”

“Fuck you! And here I was, doing something nice for once.” Keith slammed the book closed and threw it next to the others. Lance kept staring as Keith aggressively stomped over to the shelves and pulled the jug of water down.

“…Keith?” Lance asked hesitantly. Keith gave a grunt of acknowledgement and another scowl while he pured some water into a cup.

“Uh… were you… seriously reading these books?” 

At Lance’s question Keith violently slammed the jug onto the counter. Lance flinched and expected to hear a shattering noise but the jug miraculously held itself together. Small blessings.

“What do you think I did? Destroy them? Use them as pillows?”

Lance shrugged, still not sure how he should act in the face of a pissed off, _book reading_ Keith. “It’s just that I’ve never seen you read books. At this point I honestly started doubting you could read,” Lance joked.

Keith’s face grew darker. He didn’t say anything.

“Uh… Keith?” Lance hated how squeaky his voice had turned but he started fearing for his life now. This was the longest negative interaction they’ve had in weeks.

“I can’t,” Keith finally said after a few beats of silence. “Not really.”

“You can’t really _what?”_

“Read! Okay? I can’t really read!” Keith exclaimed angrily. Lance waited for that information to process before he said anything else.

“If you can’t really read,” he began slowly, “then why are you reading advanced books about magic?” Was he missing something obvious here? What was going on?!

“Because I wanted to know more about magic! And you were asleep! I already told you!”

Laughing uncomfortably, Lance raised his hands. “Hey, no offense. You have to admit that this came a little sudden. That’d be like- I don’t know, you admitting that you went fishing with me despite not knowing how to swim.”

Silence. Keith turned his head to the side.

Lance’s jaw fell open. “No way.” Keith didn’t turn his head back, he just kept glaring at his cup as if it had personally offended him. “No way. Keith?” Still no reaction. “Keith? You can’t _swim?!”_

“How would I know? I’ve spent most of my life in a forest,” he finally mumbled. Lance’s mind was reeling - Keith didn’t know how to swim? But surely they had - they were living by the ocean, he had been staying with Lance for a month already, they  _had_ to have been swimming at some point, right?

But no. They really hadn’t.

“What the fuck! Keith! You went fishing with me! I almost threw you into the water!” Lance exclaimed.

“But you didn’t,” Keith pointed out. Lance frantically waved him off, that was totally besides the point. 

“You- you could have died!” Lance said almost hysterically. He could have accidentally drowned Keith and just would have thought that he was amazingly good at diving! Until he still wouldn’t have come back up, that is. And then he would have had to deal with the guilt of accidentally killing his crush. God, fuck. What the fuck. This wasn’t real.

“But I didn’t,” Keith said. 

“Doesn’t matter! What the fuck! I almost murdered you! Oh my god, what the _fuck_ , you should have said something earlier!”

“What’s going on in here?” Shiro’s calm voice suddenly interrupted Lance’s meltdown. He whirled around and pointed at Keith.

“He doesn’t know how to swim! Keith doesn’t know how to swim!”

Shiro looked at him blankly, then looked over at Keith. Then he shrugged. “I guess,” he said.

_I guess._

“I guess?! Shiro, I almost accidentally drowned him!”

“You so didn’t. I doubt that you are even strong enough to lift me.”

Lance ignored Keith as another horrifying thought occurred him. 

“Shiro,” he whispered, terrified, “can you swim?”

Shiro laughed self-consciously and rubbed his hand over his neck. “A little? I’m not really good at it, I haven’t had a lot of time to practice lately.”

Lance swore he could feel something in him die a little. Looking between the two of them, he made up his mind.

“That’s it. We are going swimming. Take off your clothes, let’s go.”

“We didn’t even have breakfast yet!” Keith complained. When Shiro nodded in support Lance gave in. Just for breakfast though. He would take them swimming as soon as possible, no matter the cost.

Breakfast was a hurried event, Lance was impatient. Despite numerous protests from Shiro and Keith they didn’t actually seem opposed to the thought of learning how to swim so they were out of the house within the hour. He had slept in and it didn’t surprise him that the sun was already burning down mercilessly, he would have to make sure that Shiro stayed below the water for as long as possible. His skin was incredibly pale, after all.

Pale skin made his mind wander to the conversation he had had with Keith about his looks. Lance really wanted to see him, the real him, not the cursed version. He had said dark eyes, but how dark were they really? Would he still have the same toned muscles as he had now? Didn’t he say that he was as tall as Lance? That would mean that he was shorter than he was now! How pale would he be exactly? Pale, white - what about his teeth?

Lance was thinking about _teeth_. Enough was enough, he decided. Even if he had a really nice laugh that he didn’t see nearly enough.

“Alright guys! Time to get swimming! Take off your clothes and follow me!” Lance chirped. He stepped out of his trousers and took his shirt off, then he was already running towards the water, completely ignoring Keith’s calls to wait up.

Ugh. The water was cold.

Lance didn’t let himself be deterred though and kept going until he was in up to his hips. He knew that he would get used to it in no time if he just kept moving. With a deep breath he let himself fall backwards and let the water take him.

Still cold. A good cold though. The thought made him laugh and he came up again, gasping for air. Smirking, he turned around to see both Shiro and Keith standing at the shore, the water barely reaching up to their ankles. 

“C’mon Keith! Get in here! Or are you scared?” he drawled. He could almost see dark aura emanating from Keith’s scowl all the way over to him.

“I’m not scared! The water is just cold as fuck!” Keith shouted back.

“Pretty sure that being scared of the water temperature is still being scared!” 

“Fuck you!” Shiro said something to Keith but it wasn’t loud enough for Lance to hear. Not that it mattered anyway. 

“I’m waiting, Keith! If you’re not in here until I counted to ten it’ll be my win!” He knew he was wearing a smug expression and he didn’t bother changing it. Keith was obviously struggling with what to do.

“Win of what?!” Lance didn’t answer, instead he started counting.

“One!” 

“Win of  _what?!”_

“Two!” 

“Are we really doing this?!”

Lance didn’t bother to answer his question. “Three!”

Keith’s groan was loud enough to reach Lance’s ears. His grin broadened. “Fourfivesix!”

“Lance! That’s cheating!”

“I can’t hear you over the sound of my counting! Seven!” 

Keith looked at Shiro and said something. Shiro replied and nodded his head into Lance’s direction. _That's right, Keith, move it._

“Eight!”

Keith’s head snapped towards him but he still made no move to come closer. He would though, Lance knew it. Keith was bad at resisting straight up challenges like this one. 

“I almost won, Keith! Nine!”

“Fuck you, Lance! I hate you!” Keith screamed at him and began sprinting full speed into the water. Lance laughed as Keith approached, still cursing heavily under his breath. He was so easy to rile up - Lance loved it. 

“Alright. I’m here. Happy now?” Keith gritted out, hands rubbing his arms and looking down to him. His behavior was mostly for show though, he wasn’t even shivering as far as Lance could tell. Even if Lance had to admit that it would be kind of hard to shiver under this scalding hot sun, no matter if one was actually cold or not. 

“Happy? Hmm, let’s see.” Lance tapped a finger against his cheek and pretended to think a little. “Almost,” he grinned finally.

“What more do you-” Not giving Keith a chance to finish his question, Lance grabbed his leg and pulled it out from under him. It was a spectacular fall with a lot of flailing arms and splashing water, Lance was sure that he would never forget it. If only he was better at light magic, he could have captured this moment and projected it against his bedroom wall forever.

Keith wasn’t even half as amused as Lance was when he came back up to glower at him. “What the _fuck_ was that for?”

“I told you to get in here,” Lance replied smugly. He dragged his arms through the water, showing him that ‘in here’ included almost sitting on the ground. The water was still fairly shallow. Maybe he should have went in a little deeper before calling him over.

Keith lunged at him. Lance let out a noise of surprise at the sudden attempt to push him under but before Keith could get too close Lance had him restrained by the ocean. Oh, how he loved being a water magician in his element.

“What the- Lance, let me go!”

“No can do, sorry, I rather like being alive.” He winked and relaxedly crossed his arms behind his head. Then he frowned. “Wait, where is Shiro?” Turning his head towards the shore, he searched for him. And there Shiro was, still tentatively placing one step in front of the other. 

Way too slow.

“Hey Shiro, get your ass over here before I make you!”

“But Lance, the water is really cold-”

“Nu-uh, no excuses! Are you going to be as much of a baby as Keith over here?” He jabbed a thumb at the protesting Keith who was still being kept in place. Lance considered dumping some water over his head to get him to shut up but figured it wouldn’t be worth the pain he was sure to experience in retaliation.

“…please?” Shiro tried.

“Nope. Sorry Shiro!” With these words Lance send out a string of water that wormed its way under Shiro’s feet, dragging him into the water faster than he could react. Barely a heartbeat later Shiro was right next to Keith, struggling to comprehend how he got there. He gasped at the sudden cool of the water. Lance grinned and got up to his full size, feeling the sun burning down onto his back and looked down at his to-be students. 

“Now then! Let the lesson begin! Shiro, you said you already knew a little about swimming?”

“Oh my god, it is so _cold_ …”

Pathetic. Both of them.

“Shiro! Can you swim or not?” 

Shiro sighed, then let his eyes fall closed. “I was able swim a little. Now though…” he trailed off, leaving Lance wonder for a while what he was getting at. Then he realized that swimming one armed was bound to be different from, well… swimming two armed. He was ashamed to admit that it hadn’t really crossed his mind.

“Well, can you float?” he asked lamely. Keith stayed suspiciously silent while Shiro nodded decisively. 

“It has been quite a while but I can probably manage that much,” Shiro said. Lance grinned and freed him from his restrains. 

“Let’s see it then! Show us your floating!” Smiling a little and shaking his head in exasperation, Shiro carefully let himself fall backwards onto the water. The way he held his head told Lance that he didn’t have much experience with it but he would let it slide for once. Especially since he had another person to torture.

“Good! Try to hold this for as long as possible. Try not to let the current carry you too far away though. When you notice you are starting to distance yourself from us, kick your legs to swim backwards. And now,” he turned towards Keith who was looking at him with disdain, “let’s get started on you.”

“Do I have to?” Keith mumbled. Despite his words he stayed in the water even when Lance let him go though, looking up at him expectantly.

“You don’t get a choice. We’ll start with floating, it’s easy-”

Just then Shiro started flailing and going under water. Lance had already started reaching towards him when he came up, spluttering and coughing but smiling sheepishly at the concern on Keith’s and Lance’s faces. 

“Sorry, just a little out of practice.” 

Lance flashed him a thumbs up and turned towards Keith again, who was looking at him with steep eyebrows. “You were saying?”

“It _is_ easy! Shiro is just not used to it anymore. Right Shiro?” 

Shiro held one thumb up, obviously not quite ready to risk opening his mouth again. Lance grinned and put his hands onto his hips. “See?”

Keith’s skeptical expression didn’t lessen one bit but Lance was unperturbed. That was just Keith being his usual difficult self. No biggie, he could deal with that.

Actually, he thought it was kind of adorable. As far as a Galra could be adorable. Which was a lot more than anyone would have expected, as Lance’s experience with Keith had taught him.

“Okay, so basically you try to breathe in as much as possible, the air in your lungs will keep you afloat. And then you just… relax. Let the water carry you.”

Keith shot him one last look, then took a deep breath and let himself glide backwards.

He went down immediately. 

Lance couldn’t stop laughing as Keith came up, coughing and furious. “What the fuck! I thought you said to just relax!”

“It _is_ just relaxing! But you are not relaxed, your centre of gravity is too far down. Your legs-”

“Alright, let me try again,” Keith cut in. He took another deep breath and let himself fall back again, this time overcompensating for his last mistake and pushing his own head underwater. Not relaxed _at all_. Lance didn’t even try to restrain his laughter when Keith came back up, spitting out seawater and rubbing his mouth, only to notice his mistake and spit out some more. Being the good guy he was, Lance extracted some clean water to clear his mouth with. Keith accepted it gratefully.

“Okay, let’s do this once more, just let me help you this time. I’ll take your back and knees and you just let yourself relax,” Lance instructed, reaching for Keith. Apparently trusting Lance not to do anything evil, he closed his eyes without further comments. Heh, so he could learn from his mistakes. Lance decided to not betray his trust for once.

The moment he touched Keith’s skin he realized that he had made a big, big mistake.

Keith’s skin color might be purple but he was just a little taller than Lance, almost making him seem like a painted human, if you saw past the claws and ears. An _attractive_ painted human. Lance could feel the warmth radiating from his body even before he touched him, making its way through the water and making him long for it. And once he actually got his hands on the skin he couldn’t help but marvelling over how soft it was. And _damn_ , those _muscles_. Keith could probably lift him with one arm alone…

God.

He had made a _mistake_.

Somehow managing to not do anything weird until Keith was fully settled onto the water, Lance slowly replaced his arms by water. Keith opened his eyes, obviously confused by the change in temperature but Lance slapped his hand over his eyes before he could see him blush. 

“What the fuck, Lance!”

“Keep your eyes closed, you don’t want any seawater in it!” Lance sing-songed. If only that was the only problem. Keith seemed to accept his explanation though and started relaxing into the water again.

“Like this. Just like this. Stay like this and I’ll slowly take the water away.” He halted, thinking about how that sounded. “Uh, the stabilizing water. Water arms. Water rope thingies,” Lance clarified.

God, he was embarrassing. 

Keith raised an eyebrow over closed eyes but thankfully didn’t comment on it. Lance slowly and steadily let the water out of his control, feeling it flow back to where it belonged in time with the blood on his face.

God fucking damnit. Time to think about something else.

This time, Keith managed to stay afloat. 

Lance grinned and patted his head, trying to chase the awkward feeling away. “You did it, buddy! You’re floating!”

Keith’s eyes snapped open, a whoosh of air leaving his lungs and he was down under again. Lance laughed but turned his attention to the third member of their group. Shiro was good and safe to think about. Safer than Keith’s body at least. Shiro still on his back, his arm now extended as far as it could go and he had turned his relaxed face towards the sun.

Oh no, that would make one hell of a sunburn.

“Hey Shiro!” Lance called. Shiro lifted his head questioningly and came back onto his feet, walking over to them. He seemed mildly surprised at how far he had gotten carried away. So much to paying attention and coming back when the current made him float away. Damn it, his students really didn't want to listen to him, did they?

“Yeah?”

“We should get started on actual swimming now. Keith managed to stay afloat for, like, a heartbeat too, so I think he’s ready. He probably won't drown. And even if he does, it won't be a big loss, right?”

“Hey!” Keith complained. Lance just shot him a smug grin before turning back towards an equally grinning Shiro. 

“Do you think you can handle treading in one place?”

Shiro cocked his head to the side and hummed a little. “Probably. Now that I got the general feeling back, muscle memory is kicking in. I might even be able to swim again, although doubt that I can keep up with you.”

Lance was ecstatic. Not only did Shiro have a positive outlook on swimming, for once he didn’t seem to be too bothered by relearning a skill with only one arm. His little grin was a personal victory for Lance. Taking them swimming proved to be a better idea by the second. Even if neither Keith nor Shiro listened to him. Hey, he was a magician in his element, he got everything under control, he could deal with bad students. 

“Then off we go into deep waters!” Lance said cheerily. He went ahead, followed closely by Shiro and somewhere a little behind was Keith. _Keith_.

The water got cooler the deeper they went but there were no more complaints. Lance only stopped when he could barely stand anymore and stopped for a little. What now? He should probably get started on actually teaching Keith how to swim, but… could he even do it? Despite... uh.

No.

He could. He was _Lance_ , not a failure that couldn’t control his own feelings. He got this. Totally.

Feeling a little better, he turned to look at Shiro. “Uh, just- I mean, if you need any help-”

Shiro placed his hand on his shoulder, smiling reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you know.” Lance flashed him a smile before turning over to Keith. 

He _got_ this.

“Alright! Let’s get started with the fun stuff. The water will hold your upper body and I’ll, uh- I’ll move your feet the way you should move them until you get a hang on the movements and then you do it on your own.”

“I’m getting kind of tired of following your orders,” Keith grumbled but cautiously let himself fall forward until there was a wall of water to support him. Lance grabbed his feet - for god’s sake he wouldn’t start thinking anything weird now, they were _feet_ \- and moved his legs in a circular motion. This was okay. This was fine. Keith moved a little stiffly and unconsciously resisted the movements at first but Lance kept going. He was just starting to get used to it when his eyes fell onto Keith’s ass.

Oh god.

Suppressing a groan he tried to look somewhere else. It didn’t work, his eyes were drawn back towards its outline in the same way moths were drawn towards light. 

Well, if he couldn’t do anything against it he could just let himself enjoy the sight. Right? Lance felt kind of bad for ogling Keith like this but- this was normal. Right?! People staring at their crush’s ass? He was just appreciating a nice view when he had the chance to. Nothing wrong with that.

When Keith finally got the movement, Lance tore himself away. Yeah, he might have enjoyed the view but he wasn’t… he wasn’t a pervert. Okay, maybe a little, but not a _bad_ pervert. So he wouldn’t unnecessarily prolong looking at Keith’s ass when there was other stuff to do, such as teaching him how to swim. 

Lance decided that it was time to start on the arm movements and forget about other body parts. 

“Alright, I’ll now instruct the water to hold you up around your waist. You’ll have to keep your head overwater and move your arms like this.” He demonstrated the movement and watched Keith mimic him before lifting him up. Apparently the arm movements came much more naturally to him than the leg movements. Good, Lance would feel a little awkward taking his hands and guiding them in circles.

So now on to the fun stuff.

“Nice! Now the only thing left to do is to combine arms and legs. Try it, I’ll slowly let the support go if I feel that you’re ready.” Keith kept silent but Lance noticed the determined set of his shoulders. “Go!”

And Keith went. Or at least he tried. He looked ridiculous, his motions inexperienced and plump as a child’s but he looked so determined that Lance didn’t have the heart to make fun of him. Not this time. Maybe next. When he looked less adorable.

Would that time ever come?

He let himself fall back into the water, let it carry him around a little as he relaxed. God, he had missed this. The last time he had been in the ocean had been when he had taken Keith fishing with him. A smile tugged at his lips when he remembered that day. Keith had been so… free and happy out there, despite not being able to swim. Maybe the ocean could provide him the same kind of escape that it could provide him. And Shiro, apparently, if his small grin earlier had anything to say. Lance snuck a glance at the older man who was happily trying stuff out, evidently enjoying the fact that he had gotten Lance’s okay to move around again.

This was good. This was perfect. Now if only Keith could stop looking so ridiculously serious and start enjoying himself… a thought crossed Lance’s mind and he made his way over in front of Keith.

“Hey, I remember you said you wanted to know about magic!” Maybe distracting him a bit would do the trick. “So, what do you want to know?”

Keith’s movements had faltered a bit in surprise but they picked up again easily enough. “Anything, really. Can magical exhaustion have severe consequences?”

Lance grimaced. “Well, if you count killer headaches and a horrible complexion as severe consequences, then yes. Otherwise, not so much. I just get really tired and have to sleep a bit to replenish my magic. Anything else?”

“Uh… does the quality of the water affect your magic?”

“Not at all. I mean, it’s a child’s play to separate dirt and other gross stuff from it,” Lance couldn’t help but gloat. Hey, he was allowed to be proud of some things! “The only thing that does affect my magic is the amount of water I have. It’s kind of tricky. You remember my theory about the eyes glowing thing? About it being a thing about control?” 

Keith nodded, face rapt with attention. “It’s kind of like that. A little water just needs a small amount of magic to control it. A lot of water needs a lot of magic to control it. However, a lot of water also gives me a lot of power in return - it’s like.” Lance tried to think of a good comparison but couldn’t think of any. Explaining stuff he had just been born with to other people was kind of hard. “It’s, uh, like. Think of magic as a potential thing and… wait, let me start over.” 

Keith rolled his eyes but didn’t protest. Lance shot him a sheepish grin. “So. Uh. Think of magic as potential. Your primary and secondary affinities show where you have the most potential in - as in, almost infinite potential. You have to unlock that potential first though. The more you are surrounded by your affinity element, the more potential you unlock. Right now I am more powerful than in the house and in the house I am more powerful than in the village.” He paused for a moment. “Does that make any sense?”

“I… guess,” Keith said after a while, never stopping to move his arms and legs. Shouldn’t he get tired by now? Galra bodies sure were convenient. 

“Yeah well, the thing is that while vast amounts of water unlock more of my potential they would also need more magic to control them all. It cancels itself out, I guess. The more magic I use the less I can focus on the finer things which means less control whiiiich means more glowy eyes.”

Keith ignored his mischievous look and thought for a moment. “So… you have more water surrounding you right now, so you have more magic than in the house, right?” Lance nodded. 

“Yep, that’s what I said.”

“So does that mean that- Uh. I don’t- you said that you have a certain amount of water you could control without getting glowy eyes. But you have more magic unlocked now so is the amount of water you can control without glowy eyes bigger too?” Keith grimaced at how badly he phrased his question but Lance nodded again. He could relate, explaining your thoughts about magic could be hard sometimes. 

No, he wasn’t going easy on him because he still felt guilty for staring at his ass. That was normal behavior for a teenage boy. Late teenage boy. Whatever. Nothing to feel guilty about.

"Yep, that's exactly it."

“That’s… pretty cool, I guess.” Keith smiled and Lance could feel himself beaming back. It was cool. He loved his magic. “How much water can you control right now?”

“Without glowy eyes?”

“In general,” Keith grinned. Lance narrowed his eyes. Was that a challenge?

“A lot. One moment-” he closed his eyes, stretching his magic as far as he could. There was the shore, there were some rocks, there was the boat, a sudden drop in the ocean floor - Lance kept going until felt his magic thin out and finally stopped. Slowly he commanded a thin wall of water to rise right at the end of his reach. It was difficult, the water over there didn’t really want to listen to him anymore but he somehow managed. Then he opened his eyes again.

Lance almost dropped everything. He had known that the ocean unlocked a lot of magical potential but he had never bothered to test his boarders out like this. He could barely see the ending of the circle against the horizon. He usually had his insecurities about being a magician - he couldn’t use fire magic. He almost didn’t manage to save Shiro. He almost broke down after using two new light spells on one day.

But not now. Taking in the sheer amount of water under his control felt incredible. He felt powerful, capable of anything.

“Holy shit,” he whispered softly. He turned his head to look at Keith who in return was looking at him in awe. Shiro hadn’t even noticed that there was a circle around them, his magic stretched that far.

He was _powerful_.

All of a sudden a different thought hit him. “Oh my god.” Lance forgot to breathe, eyes wide as he stared into nothing. The walls of water fell down and so did the support around Keith’s waist, almost drowning him in the process. Lance barely even noticed.

“What the fuck, Lance, I thought you-”

“Keith,” Lance interrupted him, not caring in the slightest about what Keith had to tell him. He scrambled to get closer to him and grabbed his shoulders. “Keith, I think I know how I can break your curse.”

 

* * *

 

They had to wait another two weeks. Two weeks in which Lance frantically read every book that had to do with breaking curses by force. He would do this. He could do this. He _had_ to do this. Lance would never forgive himself for having put that hope into Keith’s eyes only to rip it away again. 

Ever since Keith had learned about the possibility of removing his curse he had been full of a restless energy. He had been quick to snap but just as quick to apologize again and he had asked Shiro to teach him how to read in order to help Lance getting through the books quicker. Lance had seen his eyes sparkling with happiness and excitement when he had asked him about what he wanted to do once he was human again. There was a lightness to his footsteps that hadn’t been there before and Lance would do anything to keep it there. 

In these two weeks Lance didn’t visit a single village. He felt bad for it but he knew that he couldn’t miss out on any time that he could spend reading up on breaking curses instead. Especially since he never really attempted to break one, much less break one _by force_. He didn’t have a lot of experience with curses - read: none apart from that one cursed book - and he couldn’t fuck this up. He only had one chance…  


For Keith.

He slept as little as possible and would have forgotten about meals if Shiro hadn’t reminded him take breaks on a regular basis.

The day before the heavy rainfall should have arrived, Lance dragged both Keith and Shiro out with him. He had needed their wind affinities to support his own as he kept feeding tiny drops of water and different air currents to the storm clouds in the distance. They had stood outside the house for one hour just to make sure that the clouds Lance created would be big enough for what he was planning. Keith had made him at least three cups of tea after that to make sure that he would be able to use his magic potential to its fullest on the next day.

And now it was time. The beginnings of the thunderstorm had reached them a good while ago and Lance felt that it was nearing it’s peak. After turning the rain into a storm yesterday, he had instructed Keith to bring everything that wasn't rooted to the ground inside the house. Judging from the way the trees whipped around and branches hit the house, it had been the right call. His boat would have been destroyed faster than he could blink, it currently sat in the living room next to the tub. In safety.

“Alright, I think it’s time we go out there,” Lance said with a strained voice. He couldn’t fuck this up. He just couldn’t. Keith counted on him.

“Let’s do it.” He could hear the determination in Keith’s voice. God. _He couldn’t fuck this up.  
_

And he wouldn’t. He had read every single book in his house and he still remembered how high his magical potential was out in the ocean. Now, in the middle of a thunderstorm, there was even more water around him. And wind, lots of wind. Both of his primary affinities. He had done all his preparations, time to face the music.

“Right. Follow me.”

Not waiting for a reply, Lance ripped the door open. Immediately a heavy blast hit him right in the chest, almost forcing him back into the house. It was quite terrifying how wild and strong the untamed nature could be sometimes.

But he couldn't hide. He had to do this. He had promised Keith to do this.

For Keith.

Clenching his teeth, Lance stepped outside. The wind ripped at his clothes, almost blowing him away. Raindrops were beating down on him like tiny knives. It was loud and the ocean was out of control, waves crashing in a truly terrifying manner. He almost didn’t hear Shiro calling out to him - and hey, wasn’t that another plus? Sound magic was his third strongest affinity!

He could actually do this.

“Lance! There is plenty of wind and water here! Do we really have to go into the ocean?”

Lance almost started laughing hysterically. For everyone else it might have seemed like madness to approach the gigantic waves but Lance knew that the water wouldn’t hurt him. _Couldn’t_ hurt him. There was water and wind _everywhere_ around him, he was overflowing with magic, nothing could hurt him. The ocean would only make him stronger, he could protect them from flying trees over there.

Turning back towards his friends, Lance grabbed their hands. Shiro seemed unsure while Keith looked at him with a mix of terror and desperation. 

“Do you trust me?” Lance screamed over the wind. Both Shiro and Keith seemed confused by the question so Lance repeated it.

“Do you guys trust me?!”

Shiro’s expression settled into something more determined and Keith send him a tiny nod that he almost missed in the way that the wind was pulling at him. He looked as if he might be blown away at any minute but his eyes spoke of sincerity and resolve. 

And trust.

Keith trusted him.

Something warm bloomed in his chest and he couldn’t help the grim smile growing on his face. It was now or never.

“We are going to the ocean now! Once we are there try to grab something isn’t my hands or arms! As long as you stick to me nothing will happen to you!” Lance screamed but he knew that only half of his words had reached Shiro’s and Keith’s ears. It didn’t really matter though, they had been over this at least fifty times before. They nodded at him and he nodded back - and then he pulled their hands, dragging them behind him right into the terrifying force of nature that was the ocean in a thunderstorm.

The water was warm, was the first thing Lance noticed when one of the smaller waves crashed into him and soaked him everywhere. Keith clung to his arm for dear life, he had almost gotten carried away by it, Shiro had managed to escape the worst by half-hiding behind him.

Lance closed his eyes and reached for his magic. Only that he didn’t even have to reach for it, it almost jumped at him, carrying him away on a wave of power that he had never felt before.

He was - fuck. He might just be the most powerful magician in the world right now.

“Hands off my arms! Now!” Lance yelled as another wave came rushing towards them. It didn’t matter anymore, that wave couldn’t hurt him. He parted it around them before it could get too close and sensed it following his orders without resistance.

Lance felt Shiro’s arm sneaking under his shirt, wrapping tightly around his waist. He felt his body pressing up against his back but he couldn’t waste a thought on how scary this whole situation had to be for Shiro. Shiro only had one arm, how was he supposed to both steady himself and reach out to Lance if he slipped?

“Keith! You too!” Lance screamed at him. For a moment Keith looked confused on where to put his hands then he pressed up against Lance’s front. His right hand went over his back, helping to steady Shiro and his left hand was shoved under Lance’s shirt, pressed against his chest. A half grin snuck itself onto Lance’s face when he though that this had to be the weirdest hug he had ever taken part in, then he raised his arms to his sides and concentrated. He had to find the curse.

The moment his eyes closed, he got overwhelmed by his magic potential again. There was so much of it, washing over his body, thrumming through his veins, there was no way he could control even a fraction of it. But that was a stupid assumption, it was his magic, his potential, it would listen to him and him alone. He just… had to trust it.

The way his friends trusted him.

Slowly he let himself sink into it. It surrounded him and welcomed him, reaching out towards him and pulling him along, pointing out various things he might be interested in. The storm would still be going on for another two hours. There was a gigantic wave approaching, one that might even reach up to his house. There were at least five trees currently flying through the sky, ripped out of the earth by the wind.

But none of it was of any importance.

Carefully Lance directed his magic onto Keith’s form in front of him. He didn’t notice his eyes opening, he couldn’t see anything besides magic. There was magic clinging to Keith, a lot of it - tiny remnants of different spells he had put there, the one that turned him into Red, the one that had sealed his mouth on the first day here, the one that let him see through the cloaking spell on the house. He got rid of them, all of them, not even bothering to check what all of them were about until there was nothing left but the dark, pulsing presence of the curse.

It was huge.

Lance tried not to be intimidated by it, he had already managed to get past the first step. Curses were different from spells: not only did they last forever without having to be renewed but they also weren’t bound to any elements. They were created through pure magic potential and that was consequently also the only thing that could break them by force. He had never attempted to use his magic as raw magic only - it just seemed _wrong_ somehow. As if you were using a stone to beat nails into a wall when the hammer was right beside you. 

He could do it though. Hell, he had already done it. He had gotten rid of all the tiny spells that had still clung to Keith. It meant that he would have to renew the spell to let him see past the cloaking on the house later but it proved that he was more than capable of doing this.

Breathing in once more, Lance started prodding at the curse.

It was dark and alive but dead at the same time. It twisted around his magic, trying to escape it but when Lance caught it it hardened until he couldn’t move anymore. As far as he could see there were no weak points: there was just a thick layer of darkness, stretching all over Keith’s form and keeping him trapped. 

Lance hated it. It was a prison.

Returning to his senses, he looked up at Keith’s face. Keith was staring down him, his yellow eyes unreadable and body still pressed so close that Lance would have been able to feel his heartbeat if it wasn’t for all the magic thrumming through him. There were raindrops clinging to his skin and the wind pulled at his hair but he didn’t budge one bit. 

“Ready?” Lance asked. Keith shouldn’t have been able to hear him, the wind should have carried his words away - but his eyes were shining again, looking at Lance with so much trust and hope that he could feel his breath stuttering.

“I trust you,” Keith answered, voice carrying clearly through the storm. 

Lance could have kissed him right then and there.

But he didn’t. He just nodded, closed his eyes and reached for his magic again. But it wasn’t enough, he didn’t just want his own magic, he wanted it all. He reached out through the hands on his skin, entering Shiro’s and Keith’s bodies, adding their potential to his own. It was so big, Lance could feel his head spinning. He had never in his _life_ been as powerful as was then and there.

Now, however, as not the time to be amazed at his own strength. Collecting all the magic he could grab, he threw it against the curse. There was a vibration and a thrum, Lance could see the curse lashing out, trying to defend itself and then hardening when the assault of magic didn’t stop. He kept sending more and more magic, never exhausting himself, wondering for how long he could keep this up.

The curse didn’t budge.

Lance hardened his resolve and attacked again. He used even more magic this time, surrounding the curse from all sides and trying to press it together until it had no choice but to break.

The curse didn’t budge. It simply got harder and held against Lance.

He couldn’t fail. He _couldn’t_.

Lance sent out more magic - with the same result. He completely let himself soak in the magic, then threw _himself_ against the curse. Nothing happened. He screamed against it, kicked it, attacked it with extremely high concentrated magic on one point only but it _didn’t budge_. Not even a finger’s width. Not at all.

Lance didn’t know for how long he kept trying. He tried and tried and tried until he could feel the headache coming. He tried until he had exhausted all of his potential and started using reserves he didn’t even know he possessed. He tried until he noticed that he didn’t have the strength to protect Shiro and Keith from the weather anymore.

The thought of endangering his friends was enough for him to finally give it up. With a pained cry he forced himself back into his body, gripped Keith’s and Shiro’s shoulders and hauled them away from the ocean, all the way up to the house. Keith was shouting at him in confusion and Shiro struggled to keep up but he kept going until they were all safe inside the house again. He was shaking.

“What the fuck are you doing? I thought we needed to be outside to do this!” Keith yelled at him and tore Lance’s arm away from his shoulder. He was furious. Lance could feel his heart bleeding and forced his tears back with all his might.  


“Lance? Are you okay?” Shiro asked softly.

“No, I- I can’t. I can’t lift the curse. It’s too strong for me. I'm sorry.”

There were a few beats of silence and Lance braced himself for Keith’s disappointment. He couldn’t fail. And yet he had. This was why he hadn’t told Keith that he had been searching for a way to break the curse since the beginning. He had betrayed his trust, ripped away his hope.

God, how he hated himself at that moment.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Keith finally spoke. Lance couldn’t bear to look at him.

“I mean, it’s too strong for me. I can’t break it. I tried, I really did, but I just- couldn’t. I’m too weak. Still too weak.”

He had failed. He had _failed_. He had failed _Keith_.

Lance never should have been born as a magician.

“What the fuck,” Keith whispered softly after a little more silence. Lance looked up, fully expecting Keith to scream at him but got met with a heartbroken expression instead. That was - shit, that was even worse. Panic flooded his veins as he tried to fight through his headache and emotions to keep a cool head.

He had failed Keith and now he was looking at him like that.

“Keith-”

“I trusted you. You asked me whether I trusted you and I said yes. I told you over and over and now-”

“Keith, I’m _sorry-”_

“I don’t care Lance!” he finally exploded. Lance flinched even though he had expected this. Deserved it even. “You planned this for two weeks! Two entire weeks! No matter how often I asked you, you always told me that you would succeed, that you could do it, no doubt - you asked me what I wanted to do as a human, you made me _think_ about it - you, you gave me _hope_ again and I was so sure that-”

“Keith,” Shiro said evenly and put his hand onto Keith’s shoulder. Keith spun around, little drops of water falling everywhere as he slapped the arm away.

“No Shiro. This is between me and Lance. He fucking _told me_ that he could do it, he _promised_ _me_ that I wouldn’t have to live like this,” he made a disgusted motion towards his own body, “anymore. He told me that he could _do it_ , he was so sure-”

“I’m sorry,” Lance repeated weakly. Every word that Keith said were like knives in his chest, killing him slowly. He knew he was at fault here, he had failed Keith. He had hurt both of them. He had been drunk on his magic and had forgotten that he was a failure that couldn’t even use it properly. Why had he thought that someone that couldn't even use fire magic could break a Galran curse?

“Sorry? _You’re_ sorry?! Try to imagine what I am feeling right now!” Keith screamed at him. Lance thought he saw tears gathering at his eyes but it might just have been the raindrops. “You- you _fucking asshole_ told me you could do it! After not doing anything for _weeks_ you just suddenly took a look at me and went ‘hey Keith, now that I think about it there actually is a way to save you from this hell and I’m sure it’ll work so just trust me’-”

“That’s not how it went!” Lance protested. 

“It wasn’t? Then tell me how it went instead, I dare you! Did you not just suddenly drop me into the water and told me you have a magical solution for this?” 

“No! I mean, yes, but that’s not-” Why was he even defending himself? This was _his fault!_

“Then fucking explain why I don’t have the right to be angry at you after you didn’t do _shit_ for weeks and then suddenly proclaim to be able to break the curse only to _not do it!_ Is this some kind of joke to you?!”

“No! Are you serious?! What the hell, Keith! There is no way I would joke about something like this, I wouldn’t-”

“Then tell me why that is so hard to believe! Tell me why you gave me hope, why you made me trust you just to- just to-” Keith let out a frustrated scream and gripped his hair. Lance threw his arms up.

“I tried! I seriously thought I had a chance with this! I thought-”

“Because _obviously_ a whimsical idea of yours is good enough to fucking assure me for _weeks_ that I would be free of this-”

“It wasn't a whimsical idea!” Lance yelled over Keith. “Are you serious right now? Did you seriously think that I didn’t do _anything_ all these weeks I’ve known you?! I spent every day reading books, searching for a solution-”

“Oh, so suddenly all these books are about breaking my curse, yeah? And I bet you did extensive research on the topic before telling me that day-”

“Fuck you, Keith!” Lance was vaguely aware of Shiro coming up behind him and trying to calm him down, but it didn’t matter. Did Keith seriously, _seriously_ think that he didn’t care for him at all? “Fuck you so much! These books have _always_ been about curses, I’ve been searching for ways to break yours for as long as you told me about it, I just didn’t tell you anything so that you wouldn't needlessly get your hopes up-”

“And that day in the water you just suddenly though that needlessly getting my hopes up might not be such a bad idea after all?! Fuck _you_ , Lance-”

“I told you! I legitimately thought I had a chance with this!” Lance cried. This was too much. He couldn’t take this. He was screaming at Keith although this definitely wasn’t Keith’s fault. He was just making everything worse. What was he doing?!

“Has it ever crossed your mind that you could have mentioned the fact this brilliant idea for yours had a very real possibility of failing?!”

“Keith, I’m _sorry_ -”

“No! Fuck you, Lance! You promised that you would do it! I thought I could trust you, I really did, and now-” Keith cut himself off while Lance pressed his eyes together. He couldn’t start crying now. “That’s it, I’ve had enough, I don’t want to see your face anymore. Don’t come after me.”

Lance heard Keith’s footsteps moving away from him over the noise of the storm outside the house. He could feel his shoulders slump and pressed a hand over his mouth to not let a sob escape as Keith slammed the door to his and Shiro’s room.

Shiro.

Shiro was still behind him, his hand pressed calmingly against his right shoulder. “Come on Lance, let’s go into the kitchen. I can make you a tea but you’ll have to tell me what to put into it, Keith never told me.”

Lance let himself be steered away towards the kitchen. “Keith-” he began but got interrupted by Shiro’s gentle voice.

“Keith will be fine. Give him a day to cool off, I’m sure that he will see that this isn’t your fault.”

“But it is! It _is_ my fault! I _told him_ I could do it, I was so sure, I _promised_ him that this would take the curse away!” Lance was working himself up again but he couldn’t care less about that. “I- fuck, he trusted me! Shiro, he _trusted_ me! He looked at me as if he would follow me _anywhere_ and I just- I just destroyed that trust-”

“You didn’t destroy anything,” Shiro said. He pushed Lance down onto a chair and went to get a cup. “Keith is just upset. He trusted you and he still trusts you, it’s just that he really… hates the way he looks right now. You gave him hope again, Lance. Never think that that is a bad thing.”

Lance laughed bitterly. “I gave him hope, yes. And then I took it away again. Awesome. Good job, Lance.”

But Shiro shook his head and placed the water filled cup onto the table. “Keith had given up on ever becoming human again. Just now you told him that you’ve been researching for a way to free him from the curse - not as a recent development, but ever since he came here. You showed him that despite not finding anything for weeks you didn’t give up yet. Sure, you might have failed this time, but that doesn’t mean you will fail again in the future. You had a plan with a good chance for success and once Keith calms down again he will realize how important that is.” Shiro brought different herbs over to the table and Lance automatically began to mix his tea.

“But I don’t- I’ve spend a month looking for a way to break the curse and there was nothing. Absolutely nothing, Shiro. Today was the only real idea I’ve ever had!”

“Does that mean you will give up?”

“No!” Lance exclaimed. The thought of giving up, of leaving Keith as miserable as he was right now was too ridiculous to even consider. Keith's heartbroken expression from earlier would haunt him forever. “There is no way I’m ever giving up! But Shiro, there might just not _be_ a way-” Shiro smiled at him and Lance stopped talking.

“It doesn’t really matter whether there is a way or not. Didn’t you see the difference in Keith’s behavior between the last two weeks and everything that came before?”

Oh, Lance had seen the difference. He had been happier. Lighter. He had been smiling more and even though his nerves had made him snap faster than usual he had had… hope. He had been relaxed, like the day on the fishing trip.

He had been beautiful.

Lance stared down at the cup with the now finished tea. Now that the argument was over, he felt empty. Keith was angry at him and he had every right to be. He had been right about how Lance should have told him that his idea could fail. But no, Lance had to play all confident and flat out promise him that he would lift his curse today. 

He pressed his lips together and took in a deep breath. Lance would be damned if he gave up on finding another way to break the curse. He had to make this up to him.

Slowly he cradled the cup between his hands and looked up at Shiro again. “Thank you,” he said sincerely. He would keep searching for ways to break the curse and then maybe one day he would be able to apologize to Keith for needlessly getting his hopes up.

Shiro smiled and got up from his seat, affectionately ruffling Lance’s hair. “Don’t mention it. Get some rest, I’ll go talk to Keith now.”

“Wait!” Lance reached up and caught his arm, ignoring the questioning look as he pulled the rain from Shiro’s hair and clothes. He got another thankful smile in return, then Shiro left him alone to his thoughts. 

He had failed Keith. Keith, who deserved so much better.

Something wet hit his hand and Lance flinched in surprise. He looked down to see a tiny liquid drop rolling over his fingers and falling onto the table. When had he started crying? He shouldn’t be crying. He should be searching for ways to make it up to Keith.

Soon. Soon, he promised himself. He wouldn’t be able to concentrate now anyway.

Lance set the cup down and buried his face in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uuuuuhm uh uh uh I'm sorry? Come scream at me on [tumblr](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/), I'll scream right back :'D The next chapter will be up on Saturday though so yay for that?
> 
> I'm !!!! [This amazing artist](http://deviant-danni.tumblr.com/) has done even more art - here, take a look at [Lance in the thunderstorm](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152416968213/a-quick-spoiler-sketch-for-the-new-chapter-of)!


	7. Getting Along

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally apologize and open up about their past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to hold you up for long, I just wanted to let you know that there's some art for last chapter if you haven't seen it already! I put the link at the end notes of chapter 6, go check it out if you have some time left!! :D

~~~~ It had been three and a half days since their fight and Keith still hadn’t managed to apologize to Lance. It weighed heavily on his mind, especially since he _knew_ that the failure wasn’t Lance’s fault - he had seen how distraught Lance had been when he had dragged them into the house again. He had also seen how pale he had been, obviously having overexerted himself for Keith _once again_. And what had he done? He had screamed at him. Of fucking course. Keith hated his temper and he hated fighting with Lance.

He hated it, but didn’t know what to do about it.

For the most part, he hadn’t even seen Lance. Lance had been out from early in the morning to late in the evenings, visiting every single village around. And once they finished dinner he immediately got back to reading books - books about curses in order to help Keith of course. Because Lance was a thoroughly kind human being that still didn’t give up on Keith _despite_ him making an ass out of himself. As far as Keith could tell he had barely slept, just this morning he had found him passed out over a book in the kitchen. Keith hadn’t wanted to wake him, so he had just placed a blanket over his shoulders and had left the room again. What else was he supposed to do anyway?

If they actually talked, they completely avoided mentioning the fight or anything that could even remotely be considered personal. The most intimate contact they’ve had these three days was the time when Lance had renewed the light spell on Keith’s eyes to let him see the house again. Keith usually busied himself with carving wood or clearing away the destruction the thunderstorm had left behind, all the while thinking about ways to apologize. But Lance was never there when Keith finally gathered enough courage to do anything! How was he supposed to resolve anything like this?!

It was a little after midday now, Lance was making new potions and Keith was getting ready to go out and collect new wood when there was a knock at the door. Not quite sure what to expect, Keith opened it with one hand on his knife. 

In front of the door was a relatively big man around his age, his skin a few shades darker than Lance’s. He wore simple clothes and carried a decently sized bag in his hands but didn’t seem dangerous or armed. He had also been able to see the house, so he obviously knew Lance - not that Keith remembered meeting him so far. Maybe a friend that lived farther away than Pidge? 

Just when he was about to ask the man who he was and what he wanted, the guy let out a girlish scream and dropped the bag. Keith stiffened, not sure what to do.

“Oh my god, oooh my god there is a Galra at the door pleasedon’tkillme-”

“Hunk? Is that you?” Keith heard Lance’s voice from the kitchen. 

“Lance! Don’t freak out now and don’t come over here! Just lock the door and hide, there is a Galra in your house and I’m not sure how he got in there-”

There was a crashing sound and then laughter. Keith wasn’t sure whom to scowl at, the guy at the door or Lance, who had just exited the kitchen.

“Hunk, my man! What brings you here?” Lance asked. He threw an arm around Keith’s shoulders and pulled him close, ignoring the way Keith suddenly tensed. That was - that was the first real physical contact they’ve had in three days! 

“Uh, um,” Hunk stammered, eyes going from Lance to Keith and back to Lance again. “I, uh, heard that Shiro was here. And that Keith guy. From you. And Pidge, multiple times. But she never said anything about a Galra? And you didn’t either? What is-”

“I am not a Galra,” Keith shot out immediately. Hunk almost jumped at his words, then he frowned.

“Pardon me if this sounds… insensible or something, but you sure look like one.” 

“I am cursed at the moment. I’m not a Galra,” Keith repeated. He felt Lance grow tense and pull away at the mention of the evil magic. His heart gave a painful tug: it would have been the perfect opportunity to reach out for him and apologize. Well, if it wasn’t for Hunk who was still standing at the door, staring at them. Damn it.

“Oh. Uh, sorry for that. That was- well, that was pretty rude of me.” Hunk bend down to pick his bag up. “I’m sure Lance will find a way to help you though, don’t worry about it. He’s an amazing magician.”

_He was_. And he was also an incredibly kind person, readily pushing himself past the point of exhaustion for Keith. Despite their fight. It wasn’t his fault that he hadn’t managed to break the curse and Keith had had fucking _enough_ of this. He hated this tension, he wanted it _gone_.

“Hunk! What if he didn’t know that I was a magician?! You would’ve outed me just now!” Lance exclaimed accusingly. Keith turned to look at him, expecting him to still look uncomfortable - but he was fine. More than fine actually. His eyes were sparkling in a way they hadn’t had for the past few days.

“Why would you keep a cursed Galra in your house if it wasn’t to break the curse?”

“Who knows. Maybe to make him do all the heavy lifting.”

“You can lift almost anything with your water, Lance.”

“What if I was lazy though? What if I’ve had enough of my magic?”

“You _adore_ your magic, don’t even try to deny it.”

“…touché. You got me there,” Lance grinned. He opened the door a little more to invite Hunk in and Keith pressed himself against the wall to make more space. He didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. Hunk passed him and sent him a shy smile that Keith tried to return - key word: tried. He failed, he was probably looking constipated and vaguely threatening again.

“I’m Hunk, if you didn’t figure that out already. Friends with Lance since forever. I actually helped him build half of the things in there!” Hunk stuck a hand out in greeting and Keith carefully curled his around it. He didn’t dare to shake or squeeze it, overly conscious of his claws.

“I- yeah, I know. Lance mentioned you already. I’m Keith,” he replied, trying not to sound too awkward. Hunk froze up and took his hand away before squinting at him.

“Wait. You’re Keith? _The_ Keith?”

“Uh? …yes?” _‘The Keith?’_ Keith helplessly looked over to Lance, trying to figure out how to respond to that. Lance was blushing and moved in front of him, putting a physical barrier between Hunk and him.

“Yeah, that’s- that’s, uh, Keith. The Keith that’s been living with me for a long time now. The one and only. What other Keith would there be?”

Hunk blinked a few times, then bend to the side to look at Keith again. Keith was vaguely aware that he was frowning and self-consciously crossed his arms in front of his chest. Had he done something wrong? Had Lance complained about their fight?

“I don't know. No other Keith. I don’t know, I just didn’t expect him to look so… uh… you were always talking about him and how good he looked but never said that he was Galr-”

Lance shrieked and clapped his hands over Hunk’s mouth while Keith just stared. Lance talked about him? Outside of their fight? He thought Keith looked _good?_ But he was in the body of a Galra! Was that some weird kind of sarcasm that he didn’t understand?!

After a few moments of silence, Lance laughed awkwardly and let his hands drop from his friend’s face again. “So, yeah, change of topics. What brings you here, Hunk? Missed me? Oh, is that for me?” He made grabby hands at the bag that Hunk immediately swatted away.

“Yes, that’s food, but no, it isn’t for you. It’s for _all_ of us. You, me, Keith,” he bend forward and sent Keith a smile over Lance’s shoulder, “and Shiro. I actually wanted to celebrate Shiro’s return, that’s why I’m here.”

“And here I thought you came to see me!” Lance closed the door and let himself fall against it, one hand dramatically clutching at his shirt. “I feel betrayed!”

“You know I love you, Lance, but sometimes you can be so… overdramatic. We talk to each other, like, weekly.”

Lance let out an offended gasp. “How dare you! Only every-other-weekly, are you pretending to forget how often we talk?!”

“I’m pretty sure ‘every-other-weekly’ is not a real word,” Keith commented. He wasn’t even aware that he had said it out loud until Lance looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“You were illiterate until last week. You’ve got no say in this!”

“I can still talk, Lance,” Keith replied, irritated now. Except not really because they were finally talking again. Finally. He realized that he had missed this a lot, a place in him that he hadn’t even noticed had gotten cold warmed up once more. It was almost impossible to keep the smile from tugging at his face.

God, he had missed Lance.

“You sure you can talk? ‘Cause everything I hear is a load of shit.”

“You out of all people have no right to say that,” Keith grimaced. Lance elbowed his side.

“Pfft! My vocabulary and knowledge of literature is superb and you know it.”

During their exchange Hunk’s eyes had flickered between the two of them and he now pursed his lips. “Okay, once you guys finished flirting can you please tell me where Shiro is? I really missed him, you know.”

_“We’re not flirting!”_ Keith and Lance shouted in unison. For once Keith was thankful for his purple skin, it should hide most of the blush that heated up his face. Hunk looked between them once more, entirely unconvinced. 

“Whatever you say. But back to the actual topic at hand: where is Shiro?”

“In his room. I mean, the guest room. Apparently Pidge just told Matt why she was coming over so often this month and now he wants to talk to Shiro,” Lance explained.

“Aww man, I wanted to talk to him, too. But I guess I can always do that later… anything to do while we’re waiting for him?” 

“We could go swimming!” Lance suggested cheerily.

“Absolutely not,” Keith rejected. He hadn’t been to the ocean since the day they had tried to lift his curse which meant that he both connected negative thoughts with it and still looked stupid while trying to ‘swim’. More like desperately trying to keep himself from drowning. 

“Why not?” 

“Yeeeah, why not, Keith? Are you _embarrassed_ because you can’t _swim?_ Too much of a scaredy cat to try?” Lance drawled.

Fuck him. Of course he was embarrassed! Why would he want to show someone he barely even knew how he looked in the water?

“I’m not embarrassed!” Keith replied.

“Wait, you can’t swim?!”

“He’s still learning it,” Lance grinned at Hunk, then sent Keith a smirk. “So what’s stopping you from having a good time, Mr. Grump?”

“Nothing! I’m just not in the mood for swimming.” The moment he saw Lance’s eyebrow wander up his forehead he knew that he had already lost this argument. He supposed it was still better than not having arguments at all.

“Nobody is ever not in the mood for swimming. Lance is probably just a shit teacher,” Hunk said amicably and threw an arm around Keith’s shoulder. He stiffened a bit at first - what was with all that physical contact today? - but eventually relaxed in the hold. Hunk’s touch was oddly comforting, almost like Shiro’s two-armed hugs used to be. He decided that he liked him.

_ “Hey!” _

“No offence, Lance. But I know you can get impatient sometimes.”

“No! I mean, yes, but not when I’m actually teaching someone!” Lance complained.

“He almost let me drown,” Keith supplied helpfully. It earned him a mock-glare from Lance but it was worth it. It felt way too good to have their usual banter back again after days of silence.

“I knew it,” Hunk grinned. “But you don’t have to worry anymore, I’m here to help. I’m an excellent swimmer, if I do say so myself.”

“Not as good as me,” Lance grumbled. Hunk laughed and let Keith go again.

“True. Nobody can beat Lance in the water. I suspect that he’s using magic to move like that but Pidge hasn’t been able to prove that theory yet. Just let me put this down,” he lifted his bag a little, “and we’ll be right outside, yeah?”

The moment Hunk left the hallway, all of the good atmosphere fell away. There was an awkward silence between Lance and Keith and he didn’t know what to do about it. Fuck. Should he just… go for it? Apologize now? But that wouldn’t be right, would it? He had to do this properly, not in between two random activities with no time to talk things out. Keith wasn’t a big fan of ‘talking things out’ but he knew that Shiro was right about this one.

They kept quiet until Hunk came back and Lance sent him a bright smile. “Alright, ready? Let’s go!” he exclaimed and hurried out of the door, leaving Hunk and Keith to catch up with him. Lance was somehow able to undress while running and Hunk trailed after him, collecting his clothes and throwing them all onto one big pile on the sand. He sent Keith a look as if to ask him ‘can you believe this guy’ before taking his clothes off, too. Keith joined him a little hesitantly. He wasn’t a big fan of showing off his new body. But Hunk didn’t comment on it, so Keith eventually found himself relaxing.

This time, Keith was prepared for the water to be cold. It didn’t make getting used to it any easier, but at least he knew what to expect. 

“Hunk! I just remembered that we were doing underwater rolls last time you were here! I’m pretty sure that I can do more than five now!” Lance called from somewhere further out.  


“That’s not fair, Lance, you got time to practice while I was stuck babysitting Elena and Jim!” Hunk called back. Keith assumed that they were Lance’s siblings, he remembered how Lance had mentioned Hunk staying with his family several times now. He took Lance’s happy laughter as a confirmation. 

“Are they still as bad as last time? I bet you are just spoiling them, I don’t remember them being so exhausting.”

“That’s because they weren’t going through puberty back then! Elena is driving your mother up the wall and just last week Jim was throwing a major tantrum about him always having to help out on the field when he’d rather be visiting you. I’m doing nothing, I just get caught in the crossfire every single time!”

Keith and Hunk had approached Lance, they were now close enough to make out the way his nose scrunched up when he laughed. He sounded so happy, so thoroughly content that Keith couldn’t help but smile along, even if he had no idea what they were talking about. It didn't matter, Lance was happy.

“Not funny, Lance! Anyway, the point is that I didn’t have time or water to practice my rolls so of course you would win this contest. It wasn’t fair to begin with.”

“Now you’re just being a sore loser, I didn’t practice any rolls these last two months. Right Keith?” He looked at Keith with sparkling eyes and _fuck_ , Keith was a goner. He could only nod wordlessly as Lance turned towards Hunk again.

“We said that whoever managed to do five rolls underwater first gets one wish from the other. Watch me do this, I hope you have everything you need for your otherworldly hotpot because that’ll be the only present I’ll accept when you come over here next time!”

With these words Lance dived into the water, performing five clean rolls right in front of Hunk and Keith. It looked weirdly elegant and Keith had to restrain himself from touching Lance's hair. For some reason it looked even softer in the water than it did outside of it - and that certainly meant something. Lance's hair always looked soft. 

When Lance came up again, he sent Hunk a decidedly proud smirk. Hunk was pouting but accepted his loss soon enough and they were back to exchanging stories and laughing about insider jokes only moments later. Keith didn’t quite know what to do with himself, so he just kept quiet and watched them.

Lance was happy. No matter how often he thought it, it didn’t cease to amaze him. The last time he had seen Lance this happy had been the day he had dragged Keith out to go fishing and made him adopt Prince afterward. It had been so long since he had last heard his honest, free laughter that he couldn’t help his heart speeding up every time it reached his ears.

Frankly, Keith felt a little jealous. He had only seen Lance like this _once_ and Hunk had barely been here for two hours but he had already put Lance at ease in a way that Keith never had. And it was obvious that they were close - they knew what made the other laugh, they knew how far to push certain topics and what kinds of stories the other one would like to hear. Yes, Keith was jealous. But he also knew that it was a stupid feeling so he pushed it aside and concentrated on Lance’s laugh instead. Lance was happy and nothing else mattered.

It took the two of them about an hour before they realized that Keith didn’t actively join their conversations. As soon as they noticed that, they made him practice his swimming motions again. He didn’t think twice before falling forward and letting Lance’s water hold him up. Keith still trusted him, always trusted him. That was just the effect Lance had on him. Smiling a little to himself, he turned his head towards Lance just in time to see him hiding his surprise at Keith’s behavior. 

Did Lance think he wouldn’t trust him anymore?

The thought hurt.

Keith didn’t remember everything he had said the day they fought. He had been too upset to rationally think about the situation and he regretted his words, even those that he couldn't recall. However, there was one thing he hadn’t been able to forget, one thing that flared at the forefront of his mind: he had screamed at Lance that he had trusted him, over and over again. And that Lance had broken this trust.

Lance didn’t know how much of a lie that really was.

Keith wanted to apologize. He wanted to apologize so badly that he almost blurted it out right then and there, in the middle of learning how to swim and in front of Hunk. He honestly didn’t know how he managed to hold everything in - he wished that the day was over already and that Hunk had left, so that he could finally confront Lance.

Ironically, fate didn’t want to make his life any easier.

Hunk stayed the entire day until afternoon, which was when Shiro finally exited his room and brought them some snacks. Shiro then joined them in the water until it got too cold and dark to stay outside anymore and they went into the house again. By then it was too late for Hunk to go home though so he stayed for the night. Keith had to wait until afternoon of the next day before he got his chance to apologize to Lance.

They had literally just closed the door after Hunk when Keith grabbed him and pulled him towards the living room. Fuck waiting for the right opportunity, such a thing probably didn’t even exist. He had to do this now. Lance was alarmed and called for Shiro to ‘save him’, but Shiro knew exactly what Keith was planning and merely waved at them. Keith almost threw Lance to the ground as soon as he aggressively pulled the door shut.

“Keith? Uh, look, if this is still about the other day - I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me?” Lance looked at him with pathetically wide eyes and Keith dragged a hand over his face.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Lance.” He knew it had been a joke, but still. He wanted to establish that fact, just in case Lance might have been even a little serious about it. He felt bad, for gods sake. And now he had frightened Lance because he had been overeager to get this over with.

Keith didn’t know how to continue. Silence started to fill the room and Lance shifted nervously. 

“Uh, it’d be pretty cool if you could say something right about now because I think I’m dying here,” Lance spoke. There was a crease between his brows that Keith kind of wanted to smooth out with his thumb. Not that he would act on that anytime soon, especially not with his claws.

Bad thought. He didn't need to think about his Galran appearance on top of everything else.

“I’m trying. I… really am, I just don’t know where to start,” Keith confessed and crossed his arms protectively over his chest. Lance huffed.

“Well, I can’t help you with that, I don’t even know what you’re trying to do. But I really would appreciate it if you could hurry it up a little…”

Keith could feel himself scowling but it wasn’t at Lance. It was at the situation, at himself. Why couldn’t he think before acting just once?!

“I wanted to apologize,” he finally said. Lance blinked.

“For what?”

“For the way I acted after… you tried to break my curse. I know that the failure wasn’t your fault-”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,” Lance interrupted. Now Keith _was_ scowling at him. “I think you got this backwards. You’re not the one that has to apologize. I am. You were absolutely right that I betrayed your trust-”

“Lance, let me finish! I wanted to apologize because I acted rashly. I didn’t think before lashing out at you, you clearly put a lot of effort into-”

“But that doesn’t matter! I _lied_ to you and I broke my promise-”

“I don’t fucking care, Lance, I know you’re working on finding other ways to help me even now-”

“I do! Of course I do! But that doesn’t change the fact that I-”

_“Would you just shut up for once!”_ And Lance did, the room fell into silence once more. Keith was still trying to sort out his thoughts when Lance piped up again.

“Did we seriously just have a fight over who has to apologize for our last fight?”

Keith stopped putting his arguments into some kind of order and cracked a smile. He was... kind of relieved about Lance’s behavior. “…I guess we did.”

“Man, we are so weird,” Lance stated. He was grinning too, though. 

“Probably. But anyway, I’m going to apologize now and you’ll listen to me. And if you still have something to say afterward, you can add it later. Got it?”

“Got it, boss,” Lance joked. Keith rolled his eyes but unfurled his arms and sat down across from him. For a moment he was just frowning at the ground, then he raised his voice.

“I am sorry for the way I acted after you tried to lift my curse. I overreacted and escalated the situation. You tried your hardest and I know that. Um, I appreciate it.” Lance looked as if he wanted to say something so Keith shut him a dark glare. It worked, Lance pressed his lips together and looked away. “You also told me that you had been searching for a way to help me since the day Shiro and I started living here. Despite me, uh… not really acting nicely back then. That was… very nice of you. Thank you.” He paused, a little confused. There was something else- right! “And I also wanted you to know that I still trust you,” Keith finished triumphantly. 

Lance stared at him for a heartbeat then he started laughing. “Dude, that’s gotta be the most awkward apology I’ve ever heard,” he wheezed. Keith wasn’t sure wether to be angry or embarrassed. He settled for a scowl that could mean both. 

“Shut up.”

“Nu-uh, not gonna happen, now you have to listen to my part,” Lance grinned and spread his arms. “Keith. Buddy. My man. I am sorry that I gave you false hope about freeing you from that piece of shit Galran magic that keeps you a prisoner in your own skin. I genuinely thought that I would be able to break the curse through force but that is no excuse for making a promise that I couldn’t keep. You felt betrayed and had every reason to be angry at me, I don’t hold you responsible for screaming a little. It’s fine. Seriously, if you ask me you have nothing to apologize for.” 

Keith frowned. “Well, if you ask _me_ , _you_ have nothing-”

“Hey! I thought we agreed that we wouldn’t interrupt each other!”

“You got even more to say?” Keith asked with a raised eyebrow. Lance shook his head.

“Almost finished. I broke a promise and there is seriously no excuse for that. So I’ll make you a new promise instead - I won’t leave you until I find a way to break your curse. Even if it takes forever to do so.”

Keith’s brain shut down. He could feel his heartbeat picking up and his breathing going a little more strained but the only thing he could think of saying was: “That sounded a little gay.”

Lance gaped.

“Keith! I come at you with the most heartfelt apology ever, _I bare you my soul_ , and your response is ‘that’s gay’?!”

“Well, it kind of is,” Keith defended himself. He couldn’t very well say that it had made his heart beat faster, that would pretty much equal a confession and he most definitely wasn’t ready for that yet. 

Lance clutched his chest.

“So what if it is? These were my very honest feelings! So what if a tiny, little part of me is gay? That shouldn’t really matter, should it?”

“It doesn’t,” Keith said maybe a little too fast. “I get it. Sorry.”

“Pfft, I’m not quite sure that I can forgive you for this one.” Lance exaggeratedly crossed his arms and turned his upper body away from him. Keith tried to not roll his eyes too much. He probably failed. 

“So, we’re good now?”

“I don’t think we’ve ever been ‘good’,” Lance grumbled. Keith couldn’t stop the horrified expression from taking over his face. Was Lance serious?

“What do you mean we’ve never been good?!”

“We _are_ always fighting, you know.”

“But - I thought we were friends!” Keith _really_ wasn’t sure whether Lance was joking and it scared him. What if Lance legitimately thought they had never been friends? “You taught me how to swim! We went fishing together! I- I carried you home that one time! I cradled you in my arms! We had a _moment_ watching jellyfish together!” 

Lance grinned slyly and locked his eyes with Keith’s. A joke then. Keith tried not to make his relief too obvious. Asshole.

“Now who is the one saying gay things?”

Keith could feel his own face heating up and didn’t give a response - thank god for his purple skin. Lance was already laughing anyway, he didn’t want to know what he would do if he knew that Keith was blushing. Fucking hell, he should have know that Lance had been joking. He shouldn’t have said anything.

“So… what now?” Keith asked when Lance’s laughter had dimmed down to a snicker. Lance furrowed his brows a bit, thinking hard. Just when Keith was about to tell him not to hurt himself, he lit up.

“I wanna show you something! Let’s go to the ocean!”

“The ocean? We spent all day there yesterday,” Keith complained. He didn’t protest any further though when Lance pulled him to his feet. Lance was happy and excited because of _him_ and there was no way he was going to ruin this.

“Yeah well, at the _surface_. But you haven’t seen it’s true beauty yet!” Lance’s eyes were sparkling while he dragged Keith out of the living room. Before they could exit the front door, Shiro came out of the kitchen.

“Are you guys getting along again?”

“Kind of,” Keith replied just when Lance answered: “Peachy!” He couldn’t help the way his heart skipped a beat again. Why was Lance so adorable?

“That’s good.”

“Yeeeah, so I’ll now go and show Keith something. You-” Lance quieted for a moment. “Uh, I guess you could come with us?” 

“No, no, you two go have fun. I’ll watch the house. Besides I have a feeling that there will be a surprise visit by Pidge and Matt today,” Shiro smiled. 

“Cool! We’ll be off then. Have fun, Shiro!”

“Tell Pidge I said hi!” Keith managed to get out before Lance pulled him out of the house completely. He couldn’t help a grin from spreading onto his face when Lance still didn’t let go of his wrist as he pulled him along the beach, running and laughing. 

“What are you doing?!” Keith wanted to know. His voice was a little breathless and shaky from suppressed laughter. Lance flashed him a wide grin over his shoulder.

“I told you! I’m gonna show you the ocean from below the surface! It’s super pretty and now that you can swim you _have_ to see it! You’re gonna love it, I know it!”

Keith let himself be swept along by Lance’s enthusiasm until they reached a part of the beach where the sand was coarser. There were multiple rocks jutting out of the water which had a striking turquoise color. Lance pulled them on top of a row of rocks that reached far out into the ocean before taking off his clothes. Keith followed suit.

“This is the most beautiful place of the beach! The rough sand hurts your feet pretty fast though so I don’t really come here often. But it’s amazing for going diving! And there are so many different kinds of fish! Sometimes there are jellyfish too, the mean kind of jellyfish - I’m saying mean because they hurt. And because you can’t see these assholes, they are transparent. But you don’t have to worry about that, I’ll tell the water to keep them away from us. You ready?”

“I hope you know that I can neither dive nor open my eyes in the water. It stings,” Keith told him. Lance shot him a look with raised eyebrows.

“You think I don’t know that? I’m not an idiot, Keith.”

“That’s debatable.” 

“Hey! If I am an idiot then you are one as well!”

Now Keith raised his eyebrows, too. “And why is that?”

“Because… you can’t read.”

“I can read, Lance. In fact, I learned most of it within two weeks.”

Lance floundered a bit but then adopted an expression confident of victory. “But you still can’t swim well.”

“What has that got to do with intelligence?” Keith asked but Lance wasn’t even listening anymore. He had already started climbing down the rock into the water and with a sigh Keith followed suit. The water was even colder than usual.

“Fuck! What the fuck, Lance, this feels like ice, what are we doing here?!” Lance just rolled his eyes. 

“It’s a little cold because it’s on the shadowy side of the rocks. Once you’re in and we start diving it’ll get a lot better, trust me.”

“I still can’t dive,” Keith mumbled. Lance, however, ignored him and he reluctantly kept climbing down into the icy ocean. Once he was in up to his chin, he realized that the water was already too deep for him to stand in. It was so clear that the ground had seemed closer than it actually was. Taking a deep breath, Keith pushed himself away from the rocks and began to move his legs to keep his head above water.

“Alright, here we go!” Lance exclaimed cheerily. Keith frowned and turned towards him, trying to figure out how to talk and not drown at the same time. But before he could say anything, Lance jumped at him and pushed him below the surface. His first instinct was to scream, close his eyes and lash out but when he realized he could _hear_ himself screaming he stopped his movements immediately. He was underwater, he shouldn’t be able to hear anything. Slowly, he opened his eyes.  


And gasped.

They were below the ocean's surface with a big bubble of air surrounding their heads. The clear, slightly turquoise water was everywhere around them and when Keith turned his head to look at the ground he could make out small, colorful seashells amongst the sand. There was a little crab inching towards the rocks that he and Lance had just climbed down from and he thought he could make out the silver glinting of a fish somewhere to his right. 

Lance was right. This was beautiful.

With a little effort, Keith managed to turn his body towards Lance. He was floating right next to him, a bubble similar to Keith’s around his head and he was smiling so brightly that Keith could have sworn he was actually glowing. Even more so than his bright blue eyes. Without being able to stop it, he found himself returning Lance’s smile.

“Lance! You were right, this is amazing!”

Lance looked at him for a few moments, not reacting, then he pointed at his ears. Keith frowned and was just about to ask him what he was doing when he understood that Lance couldn’t hear him. They were in separate bubbles after all, he felt a little stupid for not realizing this earlier. 

Turning away to hide his embarrassment, Keith moved towards the ground. It was kind of hard, his body always seemed to gravitate towards the surface, but he managed somehow. He wanted to take one of the shells back to his room. Awed he reached out for a tiny, bright orange one and let his fingers glide over it. It was beautiful.

Suddenly, he felt a hand close around his shoulder. Lance tugged at him and pointed somewhere to his right. Keith got the message and tried to follow after him but only a few seconds later it became painfully obvious that he wasn’t anywhere near capable of keeping up with Lance. Thankfully Lance noticed it relatively fast and with a movement of his hand and a flash of his eyes Keith felt the familiar sensation of water wrapping itself around his waist and tugging him along. Once he was next to Lance, Lance reached for his hand and interlaced their fingers. Keith couldn't stop himself from staring at him in surprise - were they _holding hands?_  What about his claws? - but Lance simply shrugged and grinned and pulled him along.

Lance had been right. Once they had started diving, it really had become warmer.

Keith was vaguely aware that he had a tiny, lovesick smile on his face but couldn’t make it go away. He didn’t even want it to go away. He was happy and wouldn’t change a single thing about the moment if someone had given him the chance to.

Except maybe his appearance. But that was a thought he really didn’t want to dwell on now.

So Keith focused on Lance instead. Lance, almost childish in his excitement to show him everything - he pointed out fish, anemones, crabs, corals, red algae, pretty stones and shells. He made Keith touch an anemone (slimy but fun), held him in place when tiny fish started to swim around them and nip at their feet and threw sand at him when he wasn’t paying enough attention. Keith had started to collect pretty shells and he wasn’t even aware of how many he had until he couldn’t fit them all in his hand anymore. Lance laughed and formed him an orb of swirling water that held them trapped in the middle so that he could carry even more.

He didn’t stop smiling the entire time. 

They had swum for so long that Keith got confused when the water was suddenly changing color. Lance seemed confused as well until he pointed upwards and they breached the surface. Much to Keith's surprise they were met by a setting sun. 

“What the hell, there is no way we were down there for that long,” Keith said. Lance laughed and he realized that he wasn’t the only one to hear his words anymore. Had they really just spend _hours_ in the water, collecting seashells and looking at pretty fish?

“I know, right?! Time passes so fast when you’re diving! I could honestly do it forever.” Keith nodded in agreement, not even aware that he had somehow learned to stay afloat on his own throughout the experience. “We should probably get back though. We’re still quite a walk away from the house and I’m getting hungry.” Lance was right, of course he was, Shiro was also probably waiting for them to come back but - he couldn’t help the pout forming on his face. Lance saw it and laughed some more.

“Don’t worry, we can totally do this again. Food now though?”

“Food now,” Keith sighed and let Lance pull him towards the shore.

They were still holding hands.

He couldn’t bring himself to say anything, otherwise Lance might let go.

As soon as they were out of the ocean, Lance pulled the water from their bodies and they began their walk back in silence. They weren’t holding hands anymore - Keith had figured out that it had been the water that had protected Lance’s skin from his claws - but this was fine. Their arms were almost brushing and Keith could feel Lance's presence next to him. It was peaceful. His collection of shells followed behind, water sparkling under the light of the setting sun. 

Suddenly, Keith felt something brush against his fingers. He glanced down and saw that Lance was carefully taking his hand, not interlacing their fingers, simply holding it. Keith smiled a little wistfully, wishing he could close his hand too, if only his claws weren't in the way. His damn claws. His Galran appearance always ruined everything. But despite being painfully aware of them Keith didn’t pull away, he didn’t want to ruin the moment.

“Man, that was fun,” Lance broke their silence. Keith moved his eyes up to him and saw him smiling at the sand in front of them, at their shadow. It was almost impossible to tell that they weren't _really_ holding hands. “What are you gonna do with all these shells though?” Lance let the orb float in front of them and Keith shrugged. It jostled their arms a little but he didn’t mind.

“I don’t know. Maybe just keep them. They are pretty.”

"That they are," Lance readily agreed. They fell into silence again and Keith focused on the way his feet sank into the warm sand. It was a nice feeling, almost as good as holding hands with Lance. He allowed himself another private smile, the atmosphere really was too peaceful here.

“Hey Keith,” Lance piped up. Keith hummed. “We already admitted that we are both a little gay. Can I also admit that I have a thing for you?”

Keith stumbled over his feet in surprise, only catching himself because Lance pulled him back with his hand. He turned his head and looked at him in shock but there was no trace of a joke in Lance’s eyes. Lance was dead serious and maybe slightly nervous, sending him a shaky smile. His own heart went a mile a minute and he couldn’t think anymore.

What was he supposed to say?

He was a Galra.

“But you _can’t_.” 

Lance looked slightly taken aback, he frowned at him. Keith felt his heart give a painful squeeze. 

“Sure I can. I do. I like you. I might even be a little bit in love with you.”

Keith made a choked noise. “No Lance, you can’t. I’m not-” His thoughts were swirling through his head way too fast, he wasn’t sure what to do. Every scenario he had thought up of him confessing to Lance had always been just that: him confessing to Lance and getting rejected. But now? What could he do? Lance couldn't - he wasn’t even _human_. He was a monster. “I am not who you think I am!”

Lance’s frown deepened. “What do you mean?”

Okay. Okay, he had to stay calm. He had known this day would come at some point. Lance deserved to know the truth about him. They were friends now, really close friends actually and Keith trusted him with his life. Hell, with _Shiro’s_ life even. But - it wasn’t supposed to happen like this! Lance wasn’t supposed to - to look at him like _this_ , like he hung the stars in the sky and then - he would have his heart crushed!

Because he was a monster. A part of him was Galra, no matter how hard he tried to fight it. And as soon as Lance would know about that-

Keith tugged his hand out of Lance’s grasp and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Fuck. He didn't want to tell him, but he had to do it now. He had to save Lance from the pain of finding it out later. He didn't deserve that. Shiro was healed anyway so they could probably leave if Lance didn’t want them here anymore. Hell, Shiro might even just stay with Lance and his friends and Keith could leave on his own, he knew that he had only brought him bad luck so far! 

“Keith?” Lance asked worriedly. Keith noticed how twisted his face had become and did his best to smooth it out again. He could feel his hands trembling and squared his shoulders to make himself seem more confident. He had to do this. Now. He couldn't lie to Lance anymore.

“Okay. Look. The thing about me is: I am not human.”

There was a moment of silence, only interrupted by the gentle noise of waves washing over the sand.

“What are you saying? Of course you are human. You might be looking like a Galra right now but I know that you are just cursed. I _saw_ your curse Keith, I know you are not lying about this.”

Keith hunched his shoulders up and turned away from Lance. Fuck, this... this was even harder than he had thought. He didn't want Lance to hate him and yet-

“The curse was not a lie. But I am not entirely human either,” Keith said. His voice trembled a little and he hated himself for it. Since when was he such a coward?

Lance didn’t say anything so Keith swallowed and continued. “I am a halfbreed. I am only half human, Lance.” 

Still nothing. 

“I am half Galra,” he whispered. Everything in his body screamed at him to get away, to run and hide, to punch his own face in until there was no way to tell anymore that his skin wasn't white. But he stayed rooted to the spot, too scared to run and too terrified to say anything else. Silently he waited for Lance’s reaction.

“Uh… is that… um, supposed to be a bad thing?”

Keith’s head snapped up and he looked at Lance with an incredulous expression. It was mirrored on Lance’s face. Confused and not allowing himself to give in to the hope rising in his chest, Keith gave up on his defensive stance.

“Did you not hear me? I am half _Galra_.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got that part.” Lance paused. “But I don’t get how that affects the situation at all. I already like you even though you look like a Galra so I don’t see your point.”

Keith dropped his arms and stared at Lance as if he had suddenly declared that he wanted to kill his jellyfish. “You don’t see the point? The point is that I am a _monster!_ I am not human! I change appearance when I am upset and I am the reason Shiro lost his arm!”

Finally Lance seemed to get what he was telling him. He looked at him with a mix of shock, terror and confusion. “You cut Shiro’s arm off?!”

“I- _what?!_ No! What the fuck?! I didn’t- I could never-”

“Then I still don’t see your point,” Lance said. The shock had disappeared from his face and he was relaxed again. Keith felt like screaming.

“What do you not see?! What is there not to see?! _I am not human!_  That really should be all that matters!”

“But… what? Keith, you are not making any sense. Why should your appearance be all that matters when I just told you that I like you _despite_ it?”

“Because it’s not just my appearance, Lance!” Keith yelled. His arms flew out to underline his point. “I am not human. I am not _human_. That is more than just appearance! What if-” His voice broke. “What if I am a Galra in personality, too?”

When Lance didn’t say anything for a long time, Keith thought that this was it. He had gotten his point across and Lance would finally see that while yes, they had had a good time, there could never be something more between them because he just wasn’t normal. He wasn’t human. But then he took his wrist and dragged him back to the ocean towards a stone. Before Keith could ask him what he was doing, he pulled him onto it and pushed at him to sit down. Then he got down next to him. 

“Alright. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long conversation, so now we’re all set. Tell me, Keith - why do you think that you are a Galra in personality?”

Out of all the questions Lance could have asked, he hadn’t expected it to be this one. There was a lump in his throat that wouldn’t go away no matter how hard he swallowed and he didn’t know what to say. He couldn't- how was he supposed to tell him about what happened in the castle? When he didn’t say anything in a long time, Lance sighed.

“You know, it’s okay to have insecurities. God knows I have tons of them. I know that it isn’t exactly easy to talk about them but I can tell that they are bothering you a lot so maybe you should just… let them out.”

“You have insecurities?” Keith deflected instead of answering. He still didn’t know how to tell Lance about his fucked up thoughts. Hell, he hadn’t even told Shiro about them! There was just no way that Lance could understand how scared he was of himself.

Lance let out a strangled laugh. “What do you think? That the only things that ever bother me are how to get new food for the jellyfish and why it isn’t time for a certain herb to grow already?”

Keith thought back to the first week he had spent with Lance. The way he had talked about his family and his aversion to fire magic. “Not exactly,” he admitted, “but you always seem confident in your abilities. Like the way you acted before attempting to break my curse. Or how you hand out your potions to the people in the villages. It’s difficult to understand what you would be insecure about.”

Lance didn’t say anything for the longest time.

“…Lance?”

“I am scared, Keith,” Lance whispered. Keith turned his head towards him but he was stubbornly looking out at the ocean, talking to the waves rather than him. “I am super scared. Why do you think I am hiding out here, far away from anyone else? The Galra know about me. I fucked up, they know that there is a human magician somewhere in this country and if they find me they are going to kill me. And my family. And Hunk and Pidge, probably. And now you and Shiro, too.” Lance sounded so small that Keith’s heart physically ached with the need to comfort him.

“They know I am somewhere out there. I openly used magic that one day when I was out with Pidge - she had to cut her hair and get fake glasses and now pretends to be a boy to protect herself. The Galra would have caught me if she didn’t bring me to Shiro who told me about this place.”

“Lance-”

“I feel horrible about it. Pidge assures me that she doesn’t mind living like this, but I still feel terrible. I was fifteen back then. I haven’t seen my family at all in four years, I wouldn’t be able to protect them if the Galra saw me with them. Even - even when I am in the ocean in the middle of a fucking thunderstorm my magic isn’t enough to break a Galran curse. Keith, my very existence is a threat to all the people I love!” Lance’s voice had started to pick up in speed and Keith was very seriously considering hugging him just to make him _stop_ saying these things.

“Hunk keeps going on about how amazing I am in the water. Yes, I can swim. Who couldn’t, after living four years by yourself next to an ocean with nothing to do? No one, that’s who. But my magic? That’s a total failure. I couldn’t help you lift the curse despite being in the ocean, in a thunderstorm _and_ with two people with wind affinities to support me. I can’t keep up three light spells at the same time without almost losing consciousness. Three! And don’t even get me started on fire magic - yes, it is the lowest of my affinities but I can’t even create a spark! Not even a single spark, Keith! That’s not normal! It’s pathetic, magic is wasted on me.”

_“Don’t say that!”_ Was that what Lance really thought of himself? Confident, bright, positive Lance? The person that had somehow managed to start liking Keith despite Keith being… Keith?

“But it’s true! And it gets even worse - I am the first human magician people know about since  _centuries_. Centuries! I should be out there doing something about the fucked up situation this country is in, but instead I am here, hiding out at the ocean because I am too _scared_ to-”

“Lance!” Keith grabbed his shoulders tightly, just barely remembering his claws, and Lance startled a little. There were tears at the corners of his eyes but before Keith could do anything about them, Lance had already wiped them away. “This is _not_ true! You practically brought Shiro back from the dead-”

“I almost failed-”

“But you _didn’t!”_ Keith insisted. “You didn’t fail! Your magic is not pathetic! You didn’t do anything wrong!” Furiously Keith pointed at the sphere of water that still held his shells. “Does that look pathetic to you? If it wasn’t for this thing I know I couldn’t have carried as many shells as I did. It might not seem like much but it made my day a lot better.”

Lance let out a weak laugh. “Cool, so I am able to transport shells. Maybe I could open a life-changing business-”

“ _Lance!_ It’s more than that! Pidge is still friends with you, right? I met her multiple times already and she doesn’t seem upset with her situation at all. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t seen your family in years, they still love you - didn’t Hunk tell you that Jill wanted to come search for you?”

“Jim,” Lance corrected.

“Jim. Whatever. My point still stands. All these people would rather have you here at the ocean in safety than out there risking your life in a pointless fight. You didn’t do anything wrong, Lance. If there was a chance to win this, if there was even the slightest chance to take this country back and make the Galra disappear, you can bet your ass that I would be at the front lines fighting day after day. But I don’t see this chance and I would rather have you here by the ocean than do something stupid that might get you killed.” Lance kept quiet. Good, Keith wasn’t finished yet.

“And seriously? Your magic, pathetic? Are we talking about the same person here? You brought Shiro back from the dead. You protected me and Shiro in the ocean in the middle of a thunderstorm as if it was nothing. The waves would have drowned us within seconds but you just stood there, barely even paying attention to them and having them under your command. You manage to hold a light spell around the entire house and boat at all times and you made the two of us invisible to slip past the Galra soldiers at the village when you weren’t even able to walk anymore.”

“I still can’t use fire magic,” Lance said quietly.

“ _Fuck_ fire magic!” Keith exclaimed passionately. “Who needs that anyway? We have blankets to keep us warm. You are amazing, Lance.”

Lance closed his eyes and let his head fall back. His expression was forcefully relaxed and Keith slowly let go of him. The sun had almost completely set by now, there were just a few rays of pink and orange glimmering across the sky. 

“Your apology was shit but you are surprisingly good at this,” Lance finally said. Keith snorted.

“I didn’t think about my words this time.”  


“Maybe you shouldn’t think at all anymore. It might be an improvement.”

“Shut up,” Keith replied without heat. The two of them sat together in silence until the sun was down, then Lance nudged Keith’s shoulder with his own.

“Your turn,” he whispered. Keith nudged back and tried to sort his thoughts until he remembered what they had just been talking about. No more thinking while talking about feelings. And after Lance had bared himself like this, Keith knew that he didn't have any right to decline his request anymore. He had to tell him about himself.

“I, um - I’ll start at the beginning. When Shiro got his arm cut off.” Keith held his breath for a few seconds, then let it out again. He could do this.

“I was out with Shiro, we were getting food for dinner. It had only been the second time that Shiro allowed me to come with him because I had finally gotten good at controlling my appearance. At least we thought so - then that one asshole of a vendor complained that I didn’t pay. That I stole from him. He lied, I had totally paid. I remember because Shiro had given me the exact change for it so that I wouldn’t have to interact with people more than absolutely necessary.”

Lance giggled a bit but Keith couldn’t join him. The entire situation was still as clear as day in front of his eyes.

“I got angry and changed… into my Galra from. In the middle of the market place.” He swallowed once, then forced himself to keep going. “It was similar to your situation, everyone knew that a Galra halfbreed was somewhere out there. I... I had transformed for the first time when a Galra soldier told me that they killed my mother and ever since they had been after me.”

“They killed your mother?!” Lance sounded so genuinely shocked that Keith couldn’t help letting out a bitter laugh.

“What do you think, Lance? They are Galra. They think of human beings as far below them and yet my mother had given birth to a halfbreed. I don’t know how they found us, but they did and they wanted us dead. Mom… my mother was home late. I remember being worried and when I opened the door - I saw a Galra soldier there. And I knew what that meant.” Keith could hear Lance’s shocked intake of breath but ignored it for now.

“I was scared and angry when I transformed back then. I don’t… I don’t remember much but I remember that I was attacking the soldier when Shiro came over. He had heard the news about my mother and wanted to check up on me. Apart from that I really don’t remember anything, but Shiro fought the soldier back and ran away with me. He had to cut his ties with everyone since the Galra knew that he was affiliated with me and would torture everyone affiliated with _him_ to find out where we were. It’s similar to your situation, really. And all that just to keep me safe… I don’t think I will ever be able to pay him back.”

Lance’s hand settled onto his back and he couldn’t help but lean a little into it, finding comfort in the warm touch of his fingers. 

“But that’s not important now. That was… a long time ago. That day on the market Galra soldiers saw me and wanted to arrest me. They came at me with their swords and I was so confused because I transformed for the first time in over three months that I didn’t move. Shiro jumped in front of me and-” Keith didn’t finish the sentence but the increased pressure from Lance’s hand told him he understood. 

“I couldn’t let him die, Lance,” Keith whispered. “There was so much blood… I broke the arms of all the Galra that were coming towards us. I pressed my shirt against his wound so that he wouldn’t bleed out and took him home. I tried burning the wound to stop the bleeding but Shiro screamed and I couldn’t do it properly and the only thing he got from that was an infection.”

Lance’s hand had now began to move in slow circles and Keith tried to calm himself by concentrating on it. It worked.

“He… he got an infection and it was obvious that he could die anytime now. So I did the only thing I could think of - I broke into the castle and tried to steal some of the Galra's magical medicine.”

The movement stopped.

“You did _what?!”_

Keith laughed weakly at Lance’s shocked tone. “It’s not like I had a choice! I didn’t tell Shiro, I just went there. But they found me and sent a witch after me. She cursed me and- and-” Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he couldn't do this.

“Hey. It’s okay. You can tell me,” Lance said softly. Keith closed his eyes but opened them again when it only served to make the memories stronger.

“You," Keith swallowed once, trying to get rid of the knot in his throat, "you wanted to know what the curse breaking condition is. It’s accepting who I really am. Accepting that I am a halfbreed. A Galra. A monster. I can’t do it, Lance, even if I have to look like this forever - I just can’t do it.”

Lance’s hand had resumed its movements. Keith found enough some comfort in it to finally gather the strength to tell him about the part he had been dreading to talk about since the very beginning. 

“The witch showed me an illusion of myself. There was a child, a girl, maybe four years old. And she asked- she asked me what I would do if the medicine to rescue Shiro would lie in her heart. She asked me if I would kill her. I said no because I am not like them but-” Keith was shaking badly now. He despised himself for thinking about it but- “I said no, but I don’t know, Lance. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if someone had placed a dying Shiro right next to her and forced me to make a choice. I don’t know. _I don’t know_.” He tried to swallow again but it hurt too much. “I am a monster,” he whispered instead.

Lance didn’t say anything but his hand still didn’t stop moving. Keith had expected him to pull away, to tell him that he was horrible to even think about killing an innocent, a child no less, but he did no such thing. For a moment, just a tiny moment Keith let himself imagine what it would feel like to be accepted by Lance, then he shut that thought out again.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lance said finally. “No matter whom you would have chosen, it would have been the wrong choice. But it doesn’t matter because you will never have to make this decision. Stop beating yourself up over things that you will never know the answer to.”

“Lance! I- I actually _considered_ killing- no, _murdering_ a-”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lance repeated. He turned to look Keith in the eyes and Keith couldn’t find a single hint of disgust in his face. “Would you have been less of a good person if you never even considered saving Shiro, the one that saved _you_ over and over again? I don’t think so.”

Keith made a small noise and looked away from him. Lance was too compassionate, too kind, he didn’t understand the problem-

“But for the record,” Lance said quietly, “I don’t think you would have managed to kill the girl. You hate the Galra with passion and yet you didn’t do anything but break some arms when they cut Shiro’s arm off. Placed in that situation you would have broken down but neither Shiro nor yourself would have allowed you to kill her. That’s just not you.”

Keith could feel tears forming in his eyes and pressed the heels of his hands against them to force them back. If Lance noticed, he didn’t say anything.

“But honestly, you shouldn’t think too much about it. I already promised you that I won’t leave your side until I find a way to break your curse. So if you ever land in a situation like that I will be there too - you won’t be forced to make an impossible decision. I'll save Shiro as often as needed.”

They kept quiet after that, Lance’s hand still warm against his back and Keith leaning against him. They watched the blue of the sky turn into black and watched as more and more stars appeared. There were so many of them and they were so far away, Lance’s and Keith’s struggles probably didn’t mean anything to them. It was a comforting thought, somehow.

After an undefined amount of time, Lance’s stomach grumbled. Keith laughed and elbowed him and they finally left to go home. When Lance grabbed his hand again, Keith didn’t protest. Lance knew his his secret, his darkest thoughts and insecurities and hadn’t once looked at him as if he was a monster. It almost seemed as if Lance cared more about him than he himself did. The thought brought a smile to his lips: Keith definitely cared more about Lance than about himself. 

He might also be a little bit in love with him.

“What are you smiling about?”

“It’s nothing,” Keith answered, bumping against Lance’s side. Lance bumped back.

“Tell me.”

“No.”

“You just told me about thinking that you are a terrible person! You can tell me what you are smiling about!” Lance complained. Despite the tightness in Keith’s chest a laugh tore itself out of his throat.

“Nope. But you can guess.”

“Alright. Let’s see. You’re thinking about jellyfish.”

Keith laughed again and shook his head. Lance and his obsession with jellyfish. 

“No? Hm. You are thinking about… yourself failing at cooking.”

“What the hell? I can cook perfectly well, thanks.” He was still smiling though.

“Pfft, not you are nowhere near my level. Oh, I know - you’re thinking about how ridiculously handsome I am!” Lance declared triumphantly. Keith couldn’t help it, he threw his head back and laughed loudly.

“Just so you know, I am feeling little offended now,” Lance informed him. Keith toned his laughter down to a chuckle and started swinging their hands a bit. A glance at Lance’s face told him that he was smiling.

“You are so self-absorbed,” Keith grinned. He kept talking before Lance could protest. “You were close though. Not quite there yet but close.”

Lance was blushing. Keith knew because he had never stopped looking at Lance out of the corner of his eyes. 

“T-then… uh, how amazing I am? As a person?”

“Very close. Even better than before,” Keith praised. He was grinning broadly now, Lance’s blushing face was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. His bad mood was gone already.

“Keith, can’t you just tell me?” Lance whined. 

“Nope. You’re almost there anyway!”

“Keith, _please_ ,” Lance whimpered. Keith laughed but shook his head. 

“You’re an ass. Why are you so mean to me?” Lance complained. 

“I actually just kind of complimented you.”  


“Then why can’t you _tell_ me?!”

“Because this is more fun,” Keith grinned. He shot Lance a challenging look with raised eyebrows. Lance narrowed his eyes at him and stuck out his lower lip. 

“You’re thinking about my confession. You like me, too.”

The grin on his face widened as he nodded. “Congrats Lance, it seems that you can use your brain to deduce things after all!”

“If you like me why are you still so mean to me?!”

“You were the one who told me earlier that we were ‘never good’ and are ‘always fighting’,” Keith reminded him. Lance huffed.

“After you told me that what I said was gay.”

“Are you trying to tell me it wasn’t gay?” Keith asked with a raised eyebrow. Lance looked ready to protest but then seemed to notice that Keith was right and closed his mouth again, blushing. Still adorable. Keith turned away and started walking in the direction of the rest of their clothes, they were almost there now. 

“So, what now?” Lance asked after a while. Keith shrugged.

“Food?”

“Good plan,” Lance laughed right as his stomach made another noise. All of a sudden he let go of Keith’s hand and began to sprint towards the rocks. “Loser has to clean the dishes!”

“You can clean them within three seconds, Lance! That’s not fair!”

“Loser has to clean the dishes!” Lance repeated happily.

Lance lost, Keith didn’t have to worry. For all the pain it had brought him, being cursed to have the body of a Galra had some perks, he thought as he watched Lance grumbling about being ‘so close to winning’ for the rest of the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! They made up!!! Also, they are boyfriends now, look at these idiots getting their lives together~
> 
> *slams hands on table* OKAY WHO IS READY FOR ART OF THEIR UNDERWATER DATE?? I AM! [Here, check this post out](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152946566513/voltron-appreciation-wk-day-5-lets-play-the-game), it's the second pic in case you couldn't tell! Also take a look at [the artist's tumblr](http://voltic-mayhem.tumblr.com/), their art is super nice^^ 
> 
> Still here? Cool. I've gotten an ask on tumblr about how my magic system works. [Go check it out if you want](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152419628223/i-read-youre-story-magic-me-some-love-and-i-have), it includes a lot of details I wasn't able to fit into the story and hopefully helped to clear some stuff up! :D ~~You should also totally tell me about your affinities, I love hearing about them.~~
> 
> Thanks for reading, I hope this chapter was worth the wait!^^


	8. What love makes them do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith are in love, Shiro wants to give them privacy and finding a way to break the curse is still difficult.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice: the final chapter count went up from 10 to 12!
> 
> Also - enjoy the fluffy parts, from here on out there will be a lot more plot than relationship development^^'

~~~~ Lance rubbed his eyes and yawned as he entered the kitchen. Keith was already up - not really surprising since Keith always got up at the same time, no matter how late he went to bed. He sat hunched over with his back to the door, deftly working on something. Probably another wood carving. Shiro sat next to him, watching with interest.

“Morning Keith, Shiro,” Lance greeted as he passed them to get himself some bread and tea. Matt and Pidge had apparently really been over yesterday, Lance spotted some left overs of their super soft sweet bread that he couldn’t get enough of. He should make it a rule that Pidge could only enter his house if she carried some of this bread with her.

“Good morning Lance! Did you sleep well?” Shiro asked him. Lance bit into the bread, savoring the flavor before giving an affirmative hum. He reached out for some peppermint and got the fire started.

“I did! I actually had a really exciting dream but I can’t remember what it was about. A shame, I’m sure it would have been a cool story to tell.”

“Your dreams are never cool, Lance,” Keith piped up.

“Rude! They so are, remember that time I told you about us being on a boat in the ocean and Shiro was a shark-”

“That’s _exactly_ what I was talking about.”

Lance pouted and got to his feet, ready to offer Keith a piece of his mind when he saw that Keith wasn’t actually carving anything. “Uh - what are you doing?” he asked instead.

Keith looked up at him, then down at the shells in front of him. They had left them on the barrel of jellyfish yesterday because they weren’t sure where else to put them. It seemed as if Keith had finally figured out what he wanted to use them for.

“I’m making a necklace,” Keith answered. 

Lance blinked a few times, then smirked. Seriously? Keith, making a necklace? Out of seashells? How much more cliché could he get?

“Aww, how sweet of you, is it for me?”

“Actually it’s for Pidge. As a thank you gift for the wood carving stuff,” Keith shrugged. Somehow Lance felt offended. Hadn’t Keith just said he liked him yesterday? That hadn’t just been a part of his imagination, right? 

“But there are more than enough shells for another necklace,” Lance pointed out. Maybe he could-

“Oh, right, I also wanted to make one for Hunk. He helped me a lot with learning how to swim.” _I did too!_ , Lance wanted to scream. But he wouldn’t do that, he wasn’t a child anymore. He was mature man, completely grown up.

“So… you’re just gonna make two?”

Keith frowned a bit. Hah. Gotcha. Now he would-

“I guess you’re right, I should make one for Shiro too.”

Lance could feel his mouth falling open as Shiro let out a good natured laugh. What the fuck. He had thought that they were something special now! Like boyfriends? They had never said anything about it but he had just figured… or had yesterday really just been a part of his imagination?! Wait, was _yesterday_ the dream he had forgotten about?! Thinking back to the day it really seemed to have ended a little too perfectly…

But no, Keith had the shells. Yesterday had to have happened, Lance remembered diving for them.

“Lance,” Keith called and Lance hurried to close his mouth. He was smiling at him with that I-am-trying-really-hard-not-to-laugh-right-now-smile and held up an already finished necklace. Lance could feel his face light up - why hadn’t he said so earlier?! Keith was such an ass sometimes. He put his hands out for it and Keith’s smile grew more pronounced. 

“Do you like it?”

“Yes!” Lance confirmed. And he really did - it was a colorful one with the prettiest and most diverse shells on it.

“Good. It’s for Matt because apparently he’s the one that baked the bread I had for breakfast. It was really delicious.”

“You- it’s what?! You don’t even _know_ Matt, what is this-” Lance began but got cut off by Keith’s laughter. That _asshole_. If only his laugh wasn’t so pretty, maybe Lance wouldn’t like him at all. Fuck him. So much. 

Shiro grinned and clapped a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Okay, I think that’s enough now, he looks ready to cry.”  


“I do _not_ look ready to _cry_ ,” Lance spluttered although he could feel tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. Traitors. Traitors everywhere.

Keith’s laughter faded as he handed the necklace over to Lance. “I was just kidding. That one’s yours.” He was still smiling, Lance noted. Goddamn, he had a pretty smile. And pretty eyes. If Keith continued to look so happy he would allow him to open a seashell necklace shop and sell them to everyone but him, just to assure that he never stopped looking like this.

Luckily Lance didn’t have to prove that statement as he took the necklace - _his_ necklace, made by _Keith_ , just for _him_ \- and looked at it in awe. How had he lived here for four years and had never gotten the idea to make these? They were super pretty, fuck cliché!

He put the necklace on and ran his finger over the orange shell at the bottom. Then he sent Keith a sly smirk. “Aww, since this one’s finished already, does that mean you gave me your first?”

Keith had that weirdly constipated expression again that Lance had learned to interpret as embarrassment. He was pretty sure that Keith was blushing too, but didn’t have any means to prove it. Damn that purple skin. Another reason to lift the curse as fast as possible.

“It was just- you really seemed to like these-”

“Actually, Keith had only planned to make a necklace for you. I liked them though so now he’s making one for everyone,” Shiro spoke. Keith shot him a betrayed look and Lance fought to keep himself from blushing at that statement. He managed somehow, but he couldn’t quite hide his happy grin. Just for him?

“Aww, Keith, I didn’t know you were such a _romantic_ -”

Keith groaned and hid his face behind his hands. “Shiro, why?!”

“Because you guys getting together was long since overdue. I’ve had to live with you dancing around each other for two months already, I deserve to have some fun.”

Keith groaned again but Lance was much more focused on Shiro. “Wait, you’ve known for that long?! But you weren’t even conscious back then!”

“I’ve only known for a little over a month but that fight a week ago really tired me out. It covers enough exhaustion for the beginning of the first month. You two might not have noticed it, but when you are fighting for real you create a horrible atmosphere to live in.”

“Sorry,” Lance and Keith replied in unison. Shiro smiled a little.

“It doesn’t matter anymore, you already made up. That’s good, I’m happy for you. And now,” he raised himself from the table, “I’ll leave you two alone. You probably still have a lot to discuss.”

“Actually we’re good,” Lance mumbled, but Shiro didn’t pay him any mind. He watched him leave the room and exchanged a look with Keith. Were they supposed to talk about something? Keith seemed just as clueless as him though, so he shrugged it off.

Well then. Time to actually get started on the tea, not just the fire. Lance leaned himself out of the window and called for some clean water, threw the peppermint leaves into it and guided it to the pot over the fire.

“Want some too?” he asked Keith. Keith, who had gotten back to carefully making holes into the seashells, took one whiff at the air and made a face.

“You know I don’t like peppermint.”  


“I know, but I thought asking would be polite anyway,” Lance grinned. Keith rolled his eyes and got back to work and Lance sat down across from him.

“How long does it take to make these?”

“Uh… a while? It was a bit tricky to figure out how much pressure I could apply to the shells to make the holes without breaking them but I think I’ve figured it out. It should go faster now.”

Lance hummed and put his head onto his right hand as he watched Keith work, occasionally trailing his left one over his own necklace. Sometimes he liked simply watching him. Keith was really pretty when he was completely focused on a task, even if he would hate Lance for thinking that. But it was true: his Galran appearance did nothing to hide the way his nose scrunched up or his hair fell into his eyes. Lance could probably spend hours just sitting and watching him but he rarely allowed himself to do it because he had work to do. Books to read, a cruse to break.

When he heard the tea boil, he made it flow into his cup and used some of the water in Keith’s cup to kill the fire. Couldn’t have it accidentally burning the kitchen down, after all. It got him an annoyed look but nothing more, Keith was probably already used him doing stuff like this. 

Then suddenly a completely different thought hit him.

“Oh my god, Keith!”

“What?” Keith looked up in alarm, his knife suddenly looking a lot more threatening than moments ago. Lance waved his hands to make him put it down again.

“I just realized that this is the second present that you’ve given me! And I haven’t given you anything yet!”

“…what are you talking about?” Keith seemed confused and Lance couldn’t really blame him. It hit him kind of out of the blue, too. But still, it was important? Keith had outdone him so easily, he couldn’t have that! He wanted to give him presents too! Lifting his necklace up, he shook it carefully.

“I’m just saying. You gave me that wood carving - you know, the one that looks like waves? I actually kept it in my room, it’s next to my bed if you wanna take a look again - and now the necklace! And I haven’t given you anything yet!”

Keith frowned. “That’s not true. You took me to see the ocean yesterday.”

“And that counts as a present for you?” Lance couldn’t help but be doubtful. He liked to be able to have presents that he could touch, a solid, permanent memory, so an expedition to the ocean floor didn’t really count. It was awesome, hell yeah it was, but it didn’t count.

“Yeah?”

“Well, not for me. Quick, wish for something. Anything.” Oh god, he would regret this later, wouldn’t he? 

Judging from the way Keith’s eyebrows wandered up his forehead he seemed to agree with him on that. “Anything?”  


“Yeah, anything.”

Keith set his knife aside and started thinking hard. Lance could tell because he was slightly furrowing his brows in the way that always made him want to touch them. As the seconds passed tension grew within him and he started bouncing his leg.

“I don’t know,” Keith finally said. Lance groaned.

“Oh come on! You have to have some wishes! A pet? Do you want a crab?”

“Actually I already have Prince, so I guess you don’t owe me anything after all.”

Lance shook his head. “No, no, I do. You might be right about Prince but that still leaves me with one present behind. I can’t have that.”

“For god’s sake, Lance, not everything is a competition.” Keith rolled his eyes. Lance bristled. 

“I know! But this isn’t about being a competition, this is about giving a present to the person I’m a little bit in love with! It’s important!”

Keith looked embarrassed and ready to protest when suddenly his face went blank. Oh! So he had thought of something!

“Okay, out with it! What do you want?”

Keith furrowed his brows. “It’s nothing.”  


“Keith, I know you. You _totally_ thought of something just now. Tell me.” He paused. “Except for killing the jellyfish. I am attached to them and nothing will come between them and me. Not even you.”

Keith let out a snort at that. “I think you are forgetting that I already adopted one of them. It’d be a pretty shitty move of me to kill them now.” True. At least they agreed on something.

“Okay, so, what is it then?” Lance asked. Keith looked down at the table and then towards his knife. Still embarrassed then.

“You said anything.”  


“Anything,” Lance confirmed. He would admit that he was getting curious. Why couldn’t he just say it?

All of a sudden Keith got up and pushed his chair back a little. Almost automatically Lance followed suit, awkwardly standing across from him. What was he doing?

“Alright then. Kiss me,” Keith said.

Lance felt as if someone had launched a bomb at his head. His thoughts jumbled and mashed together and he had no clue on how to react to this. Kiss Keith? _Yes_. Right now? _Hell yes_. How to kiss Keith? Press lips against mouth? Over the table? Should he come over? His last kiss had happened five years ago with a girl from the city called Nyma. It had been painfully awkward and Lance very much did _not_ want a repeat from that time. 

So what should he do?

He was aware that he was probably blushing furiously and wringing his hands but _what could he do?_ Did Keith _have_ to put him on the spot like this?

“You’re thinking too hard,” Keith said. Lance tried to answer him but somehow still had troubles finding his voice. The more time passed the more uncomfortable Keith looked - and why couldn’t Lance _still_ say anything?! “Okay just… forget it.”

“No!” he cried. Oh thank god, his voice was back. “No, I mean, I want to kiss you.” He could feel himself blushing even more than before and Keith, that fucker, just smiled knowingly. “I want to but I don’t- I kind of don’t want to fuck this up?”

“You’re not going to fuck this up, Lance. It’s just a kiss.”

Yeah but kisses could be pretty bad if you did them wrong. Lance knew that much. Spit and teeth were not really his thing.

“Uh, right. Just a kiss. No big deal. Should I-” He didn’t finish the sentence but awkwardly gestured at the table between them. Keith let out a frustrated noise and suddenly he was being yanked forward and ouch, his nose hurt. And his teeth. See? That was what he had been worried about. But Keith was kissing him, lips pressed harshly against Lance’s and he thought he could see past it for now.

Slowly and carefully Lance tilted his head to the side, intent on not interrupting the kiss. Keith seemed to share his sentiment - he slowly eased the pressure on his lips until their mouths were touching comfortably. Lance could feel the blood thrumming through his veins and rushing past his ears. It took him a few moments to calm down enough to realize that his arms still hung uselessly at his sides so he quickly buried them into Keith’s hair.

Oh. It was soft.

All in all, the kiss didn’t last too long with their hips digging uncomfortably into the edge of table. When Keith let go of him Lance was glad to realize that he wasn’t the only one out of breath despite the kiss being, frankly, kind of terrible. Lance stepped around the table to do it again, properly this time - and it was much nicer.

Keith’s arms came around his body, clutching his shoulders while he cradled Keith’s jaws between his hands. There was no awkward face bumping this time, they both remembered to turn their heads a little. Finally Lance was able to properly enjoy the kiss: the chapped but still soft texture of Keith’s lips, the warmth of his body, the thumping of his heart. Lance chuckled a little, he could feel how fast Keith’s heart was beating through their shirts. It was cute.

When they broke the kiss, Lance kept holding Keith's face down to press his forehead against Keith’s. He could feel his boyfriend's breath against his lips and if he crossed his eyes hard enough he could also see the smile stretching across his face. It made Keith laugh and his eyes crinkled in the most adorable way. Shit, Lance was so in love with this guy.

“You know, this was awesome and all but-” The moment Lance opened his mouth Keith reared away in disgust. Lance tried not to let the heartbreak show on his face but was pretty sure he failed. 

“Your breath stinks. Peppermint,” Keith grimaced. Lance pouted.

“You just kissed me!”

“Your mouth was closed though,” Keith pointed out. Lance pouted harder.

“Peppermint is delicious and refreshing and smells good, you have no idea what you are talking about!” Just to make his point clear, he blew some peppermint breath into Keith’s face. Keith immediately let go of him and fanned some fresh air at his face. He looked stupid and Lance grinned in victory. 

“You’re an asshole.”  


“And you have no taste. But don’t worry, I’ll make you warm up to peppermint soon enough.”

“In your dreams,” Keith spat out. He sure was passionate about his peppermint hate, huh.

“Which just proves that my dreams are pretty cool after all.”

“Not sure how ‘Shiro is a shark that’s trying to eat us’ and ‘spitting in Keith’s face to show my affection’ translates to coolness in your head but at this point I’ve honestly already given up trying to understand.”

Lance pretended to be offended but he was well aware of the smile in his eyes that just wouldn’t go away.

 

* * *

 

“I’m moving out.”

Lance and Keith stopped eating and stared at Shiro in horror. “What do you mean you are moving out?!”

“Yeah, where are you supposed to go?!” Lance added. Where did this even come from? Shiro didn’t appear to be joking, his expression was dead serious. Lance could _feel_ the way Keith’s body had tensed next to him and had to actively fight against himself to not adapt the same posture. 

“Relax. I’m not disappearing or anything. I talked with Pidge and Matt yesterday and we all agreed that now that you two got together you deserve a little privacy.” He placed his spoon next to his soup and sent them a warm smile.

Keith didn’t buy it. “I don’t _want_ privacy!”

“Well, I do,” Lance mumbled but quickly kept talking before Keith could strangle him. “But that doesn’t mean you have to go. Keith can move over into my room and we won’t to do anything weird in front of you. Promise. You don’t have to _leave_ because of us!”

Keith nodded furiously in agreement. He was still so tense that Lance placed his hand onto his arm to calm him a little, but to no avail. 

“I’m not leaving just because of you. It’s one of many factors - the most prominent one being that you two need a quiet and focused environment to find a way to remove your curse, Keith.”  


“You can help! You can help reading books and-”

“Keith,” Shiro interrupted softly, “the curse can’t be removed by force so Lance doesn’t have anything to gain by keeping me here. I could read some books but Lance already read all of them and he knows a lot more about magic than I do. Sure, I will keep reading books over at Matt’s house and I will tell you immediately if I find something that could be of value, but now is the time for Lance to try out any theories he might have. I won’t be a distraction.”

“But you’re not!”  


“Yeah, Keith is way more of a distraction that you!” Lance agreed. Once again Keith nodded his head and Lance would have been amazed that Keith openly admitted to being a distraction if the situation hadn’t been so serious. What was Shiro _thinking?!_

“Keith _has_ to stay, if he isn’t here you can’t try anything, Lance. No-” Shiro raised his hand to silence them when they wanted to protest again. “Let me finish. I won’t be an additional distraction to you guys. I also haven’t properly spent time with Pidge and Matt in years and now is the perfect opportunity to do so.”

Slowly, Lance could feel the tension drain out of Keith’s body. He was obviously getting used to the idea of not having Shiro around anymore, Shiro was _serious_ about moving out. All of a sudden Lance remembered the talk they had had at the beach a few days ago - Keith felt heavily indebted to Shiro after everything he had done for him. He probably felt as if he was letting him down by kicking him out of Lance’s house. Lance squeezed his arm reassuringly.

“But- Shiro, you-” Keith began weakly and Shiro sent him a pained smile.

“You are right, Keith, that’s not all there is to it.” A pause. “But that’s all I am able to tell you. Sorry.” 

All of the tension left Keith’s body at once and he slumped over a little. Lance let go of his arm and placed his hand on the small of his back instead, just showing some support. Then he raised his eyes to look at Shiro, what he had just said reminded Lance a little too much of someone else's words.

“Does this thing that you can’t tell us about have something to do with the thing that Pidge and Hunk won’t tell me about either?” he asked. Shiro looked at him in surprise but nodded.

“It does. I’m sorry you two, I promise that we will tell you one day.” 

Lance almost laughed bitterly. Sure they would. Hunk had been telling him that for years whenever he had asked about ‘the thing’ until he had finally given up. He didn’t have the slightest idea what it could be, Hunk _always_ told him everything sooner or later. But not this time. And now Shiro was moving out because of it.

“It’s okay,” Keith said softly. Lance turned his head around in shock, there was no way Keith had just accepted that easily that Shiro kept secrets from him. “I know that you have things that you don’t want to tell me about. Can't tell me about. I’ve known for years already. And normally I would press the issue but if you still haven’t told me anything… then you are protecting someone. Or something. Something important. And I... I will respect that.”

Shiro answered with a soft thank you and they continued eating their meal in silence. 

 

* * *

 

It was another four days later now, Shiro was gone and every single one of Lance’s curse breaking ideas had failed. To be perfectly honest, he had never expected any of them to work - they were far-fetched at best and absolutely ridiculous at worst. He had also told this to Keith this time who had understood and accepted it but now they were back to square one.

Except not really. In the midst of an almost-breakdown Lance had had a really, _really_ stupid idea that he had made the mistake of telling Keith about. And Keith being _Keith_ had actually encouraged him and promised his support.

So now here they were, at night, in front of the Galra's castle and Lance felt very ready to just give up on everything and return home already. It didn’t matter that Keith had run two entire days with him on his back, this was the worst idea he could have had, _ever_ , and they should not be doing this. If he had told Shiro, Shiro would have definitely agreed with him on that.

But it was for Keith. Lance was ready to die for him, so why not prove it?

“This is a horrible idea,” he mumbled as he put a hand on Keith’s arm to disguise him with a light spell. He didn’t have Shiro’s affinity to help him out this time and he knew that the spells wouldn’t last long.

“At least it was an idea,” Keith whispered back. He was right, of course, but...

As soon as he took his hand away from Keith he heard a sound of confusion. Right, Keith still didn’t have the ability to look through light spells on his own. Heaving a sigh, Lance pressed his hand to his eyes and added another spell. Shit, he could already feel his energy draining away. This entire situation was the worst.

“Lance! What are you doing? Why did you make yourself invisible, too?!”

“I am coming with you, don’t be an idiot,” Lance hissed. He had known that Keith had assumed he had just come with him to disguise him and then wait for him to come back but really, Keith should know him better than that. There was no way he would allow him to go in there on his own.

“Are you stupid?! You could be killed!”

“And so could you!”

“Yeah but we are here because of _my_ curse so it doesn’t really matter if I-”

“If you were seriously going to say that it doesn’t matter if you died I’m going to punch you,” Lance gritted out. They stared at each other for a few seconds, neither willing to back down before Lance huffed and turned away. “Fine, if you don’t want me to come with you, I’ll go on my own.”  


_“Lance!”_

“I can’t hear you,” he drawled and placed hands over his ears. He would go with Keith, whether he wanted him to or not. He _loved_ him, for gods sake, he _couldn’t_ let him go in there on his own! It wasn’t that hard to understand, was it?!

“Okay, fine,” Keith spat out and ripped his hands off his ears. “Fine, you can come with me. But don’t say anything and always stay behind me. You don’t know the way.”

“Oh, but you do?”

_“I already told you_ , I accidentally broke into the library the day I tried to get medicine for Shiro. I’ll find the way. You just stay close.” 

Lance sighed but nodded, it wasn’t as if he had a better plan. Besides he was kind of tired from the light magic, so he probably wouldn’t be a big help in a fight anyway. 

Keith grabbed his hand and tugged him to the backside of the castle. Then he turned around and pointed at the wall.

“We are invisible so the guards won’t see us. The question is how we’re going to get you inside.”

“Well, how are _you_ going to get inside?” Lance asked and eyed the wall speculatively. It was high and there definitely wasn’t enough leverage to climb it. The gate was closed and heavily guarded, so it was an absolute no-go. What was Keith planning?

“I’m going to climb it,” Keith shrugged.

Lance stared. Keith didn’t seem to get his problem until he made an exaggerated motion with his arms, encompassing the entirety of the wall. 

“And _how_ are you going to climb this thing? In case you didn’t notice, you don’t have glue on your hands.”  


“If I had glue on my hands I wouldn’t be able to climb the thing either, I would just be stuck to it,” Keith deadpanned. Smartass. “I don’t have glue but I have claws. I’ll just climb it.”  


“Just like that?!” Lance squeaked. Keith shrugged again.

“It worked last time on my way in. Don’t see why it shouldn't work again.”

“And on your way out?” Lance had a bad feeling about this.

“I used the front gate. No one tried to stop me,” Keith admitted. He had been right, this was a _terrible_ idea. 

Instead of voicing his doubts Lance gestured at the wall again. “Well, can’t you just climb it with me on your back? I’ll hold on, don’t worry.”

Keith didn’t seem quite satisfied with the idea but didn’t protest. Sending out a prayer to every god that was willing to listen, Lance resumed his already familiar place on Keith’s back and held on for dear life. His hold couldn’t be comfortable but Keith didn’t complain, he just sunk his claws into the stone and started to pull them up the wall.

They made it. It seemed impossible looking back on it, but they made it. It wasn’t even that difficult - the guards obviously didn’t expect invisible people with claws to break into their castle from the backside. Faster than Lance would have thought they reached the other side of the wall.

He had just broken into the Galra’s castle. He had _broken into the Galra’s castle_. Was he suicidal?! 

Keith carefully let him to the ground and held a finger against his lips. Lance was tempted to kiss it but he was honestly too nervous to do anything of the sort right now. Luckily for him, Keith didn’t seem to notice how much his legs were shaking, he simply grabbed his hand again and started to pull him to a tiny backdoor.

After that everything was a blur to Lance. He let himself be pulled along or pressed to a stop whenever they encountered Galra soldiers and he honestly felt ready to _die_. His heart was beating way to fast and adrenaline was coursing through his veins, trying to get him to run and hide, but he didn’t say anything. He was doing this for Keith and he would not let a little danger stop him. 

Finally, Keith slowed to a stop in front of a big door. Lance could see how Keith would have thought that this was an experiment room for medicine - it was gigantic and looked well kept. Once again Keith pressed a finger against his lips, then let go of his hand for the first time since they touched the ground on this side of the wall. He carefully opened the door. 

Lance could have sworn his heart stopped. He opened the door, just like that. No lock, nothing. Why would the Galra leave the door open in the middle of the night if someone wasn’t in there? What if it was a trap?!

But the room was empty and Keith quickly yanked him into it before closing the door as quietly as possible. Lance swallowed hard and looked around, trying to figure out where they kept the books about magic.

“You start here and I start there?” Keith suggested, pointing to the back of the room. Lance figured that it didn’t really matter anyway and got to work.

He had gotten through at least two rows of shelves, disappointed and confused at the way the Galra were sorting their books, when Keith called for him. Lance immediately made his way over. He found him in front of a tiny, locked door, frowning down at it. 

“They are in there,” Keith stated. 

“How would you know? I didn’t even get through half of the stuff-”

“I just know it. They wouldn’t keep books about curses with all the other stuff, would they?”

Keith had a point and Lance really didn’t want to read through all of the books in the _gigantic_ library, so he shoved him out of the way and placed his hands against the door.

“What are you doing?!”

“Finding out whether they put some kind of protection spell onto the door. If they really keep their - I knew it!” There it was, the telltale humming of magic coming from the doorknob. Lance breathed in deeply and concentrated on finding out what he was dealing with. It wasn’t a curse, curses were real and shifty and reacted to prodding, but it definitely was something. A spell, he realized soon enough - it felt weird since it came from the Galra and wasn’t associated with any element but he could easily work through it by opening the door from the inside. 

Ah damn, more magic to add to his exhaustion.

Commanding the air to collect around the knob on the other side, Lance opened the door. He could feel a wave of dizziness washing over him but Keith’s hand was right there at his back, holding him steady.

“You okay?”

“Better than okay. I’m awesome,” Lance breathed. For a few seconds he just stood there, collecting himself and pushing his exhaustion aside, then he pushed against the wood and entered the tiny room.

It was a lot smaller than the rest of the library and the books looked a lot older, too. They had to duck their heads to fully enter it, which meant that the Galra probably had to crawl in. Lance was tired enough that he felt a giggle rising in his throat. 

“What exactly are we looking for?” Keith asked, voice strained. It was only then that Lance noticed how tense he had been this whole time already. Right, he didn’t have any good memories of this place.

“Try searching for curses. Anything about curses. We have to hurry, I’m not sure how much longer I can hold our disguises,” Lance admitted. He would rather not have them getting as close to discovery as they had been that day at the village. 

“Right,” Keith answered. And then they got to work.

They had only been there for an hour and while Lance had learned a lot about casting curses the Galran way - something about pulling strength from a Balmeran crystal? Whatever that was - he wasn’t any closer to finding a way to help Keith. He could feel himself growing more desperate the more books he skimmed through but there really wasn’t anything. Did the Galra burn every book on breaking curses or what?!

“It always only says the same thing!” Keith snapped at some point. “It’s always either fulfilling the condition, making the original caster take it back, breaking the curse by force or finding an Altean and a stupid crystal! What the fuck is an Altean?! Where are these crystals?!”

Lance didn’t know either.

They kept reading.

When Lance found that reading was getting difficult through his headache, he begrudgingly closed the book in his hands. He couldn’t keep this up any longer, but he refused to go like this.

“Lance?” 

Lance raised his head and found Keith looking at him worriedly. Fuck. He couldn’t tell him to go, not again. He couldn’t tell him to leave all his hopes behind _again_ , just because he was too weak- Keith deserved to be _happy-_

“Do we need to go?”

A broken sound made it past his lips. “I’m sorry, Keith,” he whispered. His heart hurt. Why was he so weak? Why did he have to have an affinity for wind when he could have had one for light? Why was he so goddamn _useless_ when he was the only one that could possibly help Keith?! Why didn’t anything ever go as planned?!

Keith closed his book resolutely and held it against Lance’s chest. “We’re keeping this one. I’m not leaving empty handed, even if it doesn’t help us. Maybe Shiro knows what an Altean is or where we could find a crystal.”

It pained Lance to make Keith leave like this but he held onto the book when Keith dragged him to his feet and out of the tiny door. Just when they were about to leave the library for good, an idea formed itself in Lance’s head.

“Wait!”

“Lance, I’m not staying here any longer, you are looking like-”

“Get a history book!”

Keith looked at him as if he had lost his mind. “We don’t have time for- why would you even want a-”

“The crystal. They use the crystal to use magic, so they _have_ to have something about discovering them, right? Somewhere in here could be the solution- they could tell us where to find them-” Lance stopped talking as another wave of dizziness hit him. Fuck. They had to get out of here _now_ but they couldn’t leave without-

“There is _no time_ ,” Keith hissed. He grabbed his shoulder and tried to get him to move but Lance wouldn’t budge. He had to help Keith somehow, he _refused_ to be useless-

“Lance, please!” Desperation bled into Keith’s voice and Lance blinked at him in surprise. Why did he sound so worried? “We have to leave now, we can come back some other time but we _have_ to go now.”

“Alright,” Lance gave in. Keith was right, they could come back. Maybe they could stay somewhere in the forest near the castle for the day and come back next night.

Keith let out an audible sigh of relief and made to open the door to the hallways. The moment his claws touched the material, the door started moving on his own. 

Lance couldn’t feel his heartbeat anymore.

He instinctively yanked Keith away from the door, pressing both of them against the wall. Keith protectively held an arm across Lance's body and Lance tried really hard to breathe as quietly as possible. Then the door opened fully and voices weaved in, followed by two hooded figures.

“It doesn’t matter, the king wants the reports, he gets the reports,” a raspy voice said. Despite feeling his alertness drain away by the second, Lance could feel the way Keith’s body language shifted. He was scared.

“You are right, of course,” the other Galra agreed as he walked past them to reach the left side of the room where they kept the scrolls. They left the door open behind them. Small blessings, maybe luck was on their side for once. Lance started towards it, when a voice held him back.

“Something feels weird here,” the first person said. Then they turned directly towards Keith and stared at the air in front of him. Narrowed yellow eyes glared at him and Lance felt as if someone had pushed him into a bottomless pit. His stomach dropped and there was nothing he could hold on to. He was still holding the spell, nobody should be able to see past it, so why-

“What kind of weird?”

“I feel… the curse,” the hooded figure said and extended a hand towards Keith. 

No. 

No, no, no, this couldn’t be it-

“I am not trying to be disrespectful, ma’am, but it’s probably nothing. With all the talk about the halfbreed still not showing up it might be a fragment of your imagination.”

The clawed hand stopped barely a fingers width away from Keith’s face before the woman let if fall down and turned towards the other. “It might be. He is a strong one, if his friend somehow managed to survive his injury it doesn't surprise me that he still isn’t here. Did you find any evidence of that?”

“None, ma’am. There was another guy with them but he still had both arms and didn’t fit the description. One of our scouts followed him, it should be in the reports. For all we know the halfbreed’s companion could be alive and out of the country.” The Galra came back towards the door, a scroll in his hand. “The magician might have been able to help him. We don’t know.”

“We will find out soon enough,” the first person said and they exited the room together. Lance’s head was spinning and he wasn’t sure whether it was from exhaustion or relief that they hadn’t been found out. Had it always been this hard to breathe?

Suddenly, Keith drew his knife and made a movement to follow the Galra. Lance wasn’t quick enough to grab him and dread spread through him. There was no way Keith could fight against two Galra and win. Not if one of them could sense the curse. Not if one of them was a magician. In a move of desperation, threw himself against Keith’s back. Keith stumbled a little but managed to catch both himself and Lance before they could fall to the ground and draw attention to themselves. 

“Don’t,” Lance whispered, kind of shocked about how weak he sounded. Keith seemed conflicted for a moment, then sheathed his knife again and wrapped his arms around Lance. Lance breathed out in relief and sagged even more against him.

“We have to get you out of here.”

Lance nodded in agreement but he couldn’t find the strength to move his legs. Hell, he barely had the strength to hold the book that Keith wanted to take with him! Keith seemed to notice it and hoisted him in the air, holding him against his upper body in the same way he had held him on the day at the village. So much about not letting time repeat itself.

Somehow, they got out of the castle. Lance really didn’t remember much of it. There were a few doors and he thought there might have been a patrol that almost walked against them but he wasn’t sure. He was much more focused on breathing, keeping his heartbeat alive and holding up the light spells. And the book.

“Lance,” Keith mumbled against his ear. It tickled and Lance tried to move his head away. “You have to hold on on your own now. I need my hands to climb the wall.”

Wall? Why was there a wall? Weren’t they out of the castle already? Wait, was the wall in front of or inside of the castle? Lance didn’t remember, nothing made sense anymore.

“Lance,” Keith repeated more insistently. Alright, alright, holding on, he could totally do that.

Somehow Lance managed to wrap his legs around Keith’s waist and hooked his feet together so that he wouldn’t fall. His arms reached around Keith’s neck and he buried his hands in his shirt, trying to press himself as close as possible so that the book between their bodies wouldn’t fall down. It dug uncomfortably into his stomach but Lance knew that if he adjusted it now he wouldn’t have enough strength to bring his arms back up again.

Keith started climbing. 

Lance wasn’t sure how much time passed, for some reason it seemed to be simultaneously longer and shorter than on their way in. Also Keith smelled nice. It was an odd thought to have, but Lance didn’t really have much else to concentrate on to keep himself from losing consciousness. He pressed his face a little closer against Keith’s neck and just breathed.

Maybe he did briefly lose consciousness after all, because the next thing he remembers was Keith propping him up against a tree and saying that it was now safe to let go. And he did, gratefully so - suddenly it felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his lungs. Fresh air flooded his system and he wheezed.

“Lance? Are you okay?”

“Gimme a moment,” Lance rasped out and let his head fall back. His head was killing him. Damn, had he even remembered to bring the herbs for his tea? He didn’t think so. This was the _worst_.

“We should go home now,” Keith said after a while. Something inside of Lance wanted to protest, something told him that there was still something to do, even if he couldn’t really remember it-

“No,” he opposed weakly.

“I don’t care what you are saying. You are looking half dead.”

Lance _felt_ half dead.

“‘m alive,” Lance claimed. He opened his eyes and shot Keith a half-heartened glare just to get his point across. Keith crouched in front of him, the book in his hand and a worried expression on his face that made Lance feel insanely guilty.

Right! The book!

“We have to go back. We need to find out about the crystal,” Lance insisted. His head was still pounding but he knew that they couldn’t just leave like that! He would be fine again in a day. Probably. Most likely.

“Lance, we stole a book out of their protected chamber. I’m pretty sure that they will increase the guards now, we can always look somewhere else.”

“But there is nowhere else!” Lance was right and they both knew it. The Galra would have destroyed every book with information about the crystal if it was a way to break their curses.

“We are not going back there.”  


“We have to!”  


“Lance! I will not allow you to look like this again because of me!” Keith yelled suddenly. Lance flinched a little at the sudden increase noise and lifted his right hand to his head. God, he really desperately needed his tea now.

“But then we won’t be able to break-”

“I don’t _care!”_ Keith’s voice cracked despite being significantly lower in volume than before. “We will find another way. There has to be another way. I won’t let you look like this anymore and I won’t let you walk into the Galra’s castle again!”

Lance chuckled weakly. “You sound just like Shiro now. Relax, I’m not about to die.”

“But you sure look like it! I care about you, Lance. I won’t let you hurt yourself in an attempt to help me.”

Love.

Oh fuck, Lance loved him. He loved him so much.

“I care about you too,” Lance said and reached out towards Keith. Keith moved closer and pressed their foreheads together. For a moment they just sat there in silence, breathing together and sharing body warmth. 

“Alright, let’s go home,” Lance whispered. He would find another way to help Keith. He had to. If it pained Keith this much to see him like this, it wasn’t worth to continue.

Keith smiled a little and pressed a quick peck to Lance’s lips. “I’ll carry the book, don’t worry. You look tired, just go to sleep.” 

He didn’t have enough energy to protest anymore and fell asleep to the regular motion of Keith’s running.

 

* * *

 

Two days later they were back home. Lance’s headache had finally receded but the first thing he did was making himself some tea. It was nighttime and he was still disappointed in himself that he hadn’t managed to hold out longer. Adding that to the fact that he had barely moved these past two days, he knew that sleep wouldn't come to him anytime soon. Keith kept him company, silently working on another wood carving. 

“What are you making this time?” Lance asked him curiously. Keith looked at him in confusion.

“Carving wood?”

“Yeah but like, what’s it going to be?” Throughout the last month Keith had gotten pretty amazing at it but Lance couldn’t recognize what this one was supposed to depict.

“The jellyfish,” he admitted and blushed a little. Lance let out a surprised laugh.

“You grew really attached to them, huh? Speaking of, I totally need to feed them. Wanna help me?”

“You just throw some flakes in the water,” Keith grumbled but set the wood aside and got up. Lance grinned and grabbed his hand, thumbing over his claws.

“Brine shrimp. How often do I have to tell you?”

“Well, I never actually fed them, I just watched you doing it. They look like flakes.” 

He wasn’t wrong about that. 

“Then it’s time you feed them! Here, take them,” Lance spoke and handed him the bag full of shrimp. He then opened the barrel and set the top aside. It was dark already, so he could see the jellyfish glowing and swimming around happily.

“How many?” Keith asked, sounding unsure. Lance waved his hand.

“A little. Just throw it in slowly, I’ll tell you when to stop.” And Keith did, carefully letting the shrimp flutter into the water. Lance let him add a few more than usual, the jellyfish had to be hungry after not being fed for four days, then he checked the water temperature. A little warmer than usual but nothing that he couldn’t correct easily. Satisfied with his work, Lance blew a kiss at the water and closed the barrel again.

“You’re not taking them out to look at them,” Keith piped up. Lance shrugged.

“Yeah, they are eating, I don’t want to be rude.”  


“That has never stopped you before,” he pointed out. Damn Keith and his observational skills. Lance couldn’t protest so he kept silent instead.

“You are still blaming yourself for us having to leave the castle, don’t you?” Keith said plainly. Lance flinched at having his insecurities addressed so openly but he knew that Keith didn’t mean any harm. He just had a hard time with words sometimes. 

“If I had been just a little stronger, maybe we could have-”

“Lance. I don’t care. We will find another way. We managed to find another way to lift the curse, even if we might not understand it yet, and that’s enough for me.”

But it _wasn’t_ enough. Knowing that there was another way but not being able to use that knowledge was far worse than not even having it in the first place. He and his inability to use his magic correctly had just taken Keith’s only chance of breaking the curse away from him and Keith wasn’t even _angry_. It was not right. His magic was useless, the only thing he had ever held any pride in was _fucking useless_.

Lance wasn’t even aware that he had said that last part out loud until he felt Keith’s hands grabbing his shoulders. He looked up into yellow eyes and wished he could take it all back if it made Keith look like this. 

“Your magic is not useless. Shiro would be _dead_ without it. Hundreds of people at the villages nearby would be dead without it. And I…” Keith swallowed visibly and added quieter: “I wouldn’t know what it means to have hope without it. Without you.” 

Lance felt his heart swell with affection and he wrapped his arms around Keith. Keith returned the hug without hesitation, pulling him closer. He was so warm and comforting and probably didn’t even know it. 

Had Lance really given him hope again? He wanted to believe it, he really did. Keith was the one that listened to his rambles about magic despite not understanding anything, he was the one that helped him with his potions and gave him presents. He was also the one that Lance felt he could entrust everything to: his insecurities, his hopes, his troubles, his thoughts. Keith would listen to them, accept them, point out holes in his logic and make fun of him for them but in the end he would always be there. By his side, comforting him.

Lance loved him.

“I love you.”

Keith held him a little tighter, breathing evenly into his hair even though Lance could feel his heartbeat speed up a little. He smiled, Keith was a big softie with a love for glowing things.

A love for glowing things…

“Keith! I want to show you something! Follow me!” Lance said and ran out of the kitchen towards the door. Keith followed suit, throwing questions and curses at him but Lance ignored him until he reached the water. They weren't wearing any shoes. Grinning excitedly, he dug his heels into the wet sand and waited for a confused Keith to do the same.

“Alright. I hate to be cliché now but close your eyes!”

Keith grumbled something under his breath that sounded a suspiciously lot like ‘why do I even put up with you’ but he closed his eyes anyway. Lance smiled and took hold of his hand, smiling even harder when he felt Keith carefully giving a squeeze. What did he say? A big softie. Happily he raised his other hand towards the water and let his magic flow.

Slowly, very slowly the bacteria came to the surface. At first there were only ten of them, then twenty, then hundreds and thousands. So many of them, it grew impossible to count. They were everywhere, sparkling on the water like stars in the sky, illuminating the night from the below.

“Okay, you can open your eyes now,” Lance spoke and nudged his shoulder a little. He kept his eyes trained on Keith’s face as he opened his eyes and let out a small gasp.

“Lance, what - what is this?!” He was in awe, bending over to scoop up a little of the glowing water and letting it trickle through his fingers. Lance smiled so hard his cheeks hurt.

“They’re bacteria. They don’t usually come here but I once read a story about a sparkling ocean and thought that there had to be a way to recreate it - I spent nights after nights out here, experimenting with calling different kinds of jellyfish until I found these.” Keith listened with rapt attention, eyes never leaving the ocean before him. “I actually tried keeping them once but it appears that most of them like eating rotten fish and I’m not a big fan of those. So I just call them over here whenever I want to.”

“They are pretty,” Keith said. Lance thumbed over his hand. 

“I know. I have to be careful to not do this too often though, otherwise there might not be enough left to create this.” Keith nodded and they just stood there for the longest time. Eventually they got tired of standing though and moved the beach up a little to sit down. Huddled together, they kept watching the ocean.

“You never would have guessed that these are rotten fish-eating bacteria,” Keith mumbled. Lance laughed.

“Takes a bit of the magic away, huh?”

“Not really.” 

And he was right, the sight was magical no matter whether you knew about them or not. It was sparkling and glowing, creating an atmosphere of peace and wonder. Lance leaned his head against Keith’s. 

“Well, that’s good then. I wanted to make you happy, so it’d be pretty bad if my rambling fucked that up.”

Keith separated their hands and moved his arm around Lance’s back instead. “You already make me pretty happy, even if you don’t do anything.”  


“Keith, that’s gay.”

“And bringing me out here at night to hold hands and watch the ocean isn’t?”

“Touché, my friend. You got me there.” Keith chuckled softly and Lance smiled happily at the vibrations going through his body. This was good. Keith was happy. He was supposed to always be this happy.

“You literally told me you loved me.”

“And that’s still true. Never said I wasn’t gay for you.” Keith chuckled again but it sounded a lot more subdued. Lance frowned, had he said something wrong? Moving away to turn his head a little, Lance looked at Keith.

Keith was looking at his hand in the sand, not at the ocean anymore. His very much not human hand. 

Lance’s heart gave a tug and he snuggled up against him again. “You know, you are a lot different than what you look like, too,” he said.

“What?”

“The bacteria. We talked about how they were actually evil even though they are pretty looking? You’re the contrary. You have claws that could tear me apart in seconds but you choose to make them hold my hand instead.” He felt Keith pressing closer against him, moving his hand out of sight. 

“You are a lot more than what you look like, Keith.”

Keith didn’t reply for the longest time. And when he finally did, it wasn’t to Lance’s little speech.

“I love you too, Lance.”

They kept watching the ocean in silence.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you @ everyone that left a nice comment here or on tumblr! Please never stop being awesome. You guys are what keeps me going <3
> 
> Also - the next chapter is going to be what I call the "bonus chapter". Bonus because it's written from Shiro's perspective and deals with the talk he had with Matt (and Pidge? Don't lie Shiro, she was there for like, 2 seconds) that led to him moving out. So no klance next chapter but you'll get some flashbacks to Keith's/Lance's past and there will be A LOT of plot stuff happening. Don't skip it just because it's the "bonus chapter" or this story is going to be confusing from here on out :P


	9. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The talk between Matt and Shiro that leads to Shiro moving out. His secret gets revealed and there are 2 flashbacks to Keith's and Lance's past respectively.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go, the chapter is written from Shiro's perspective! The cuts signify that the next scene is going to be a flashback, but I actually think that's pretty obvious from the way it's written. Btw, I really loved reading all the theories on Shiro's secret~  
> Now then, enjoy the klance-less chapter :)
> 
> /edit: so I went over the earlier chapters again but didn't get all the way through, from here on out there will probably be a lot more typos and whatnot^^' sorry for that...

“Shiro? Lance?”

A voice coming seemingly out of nowhere startled Shiro into looking up from the book he had been reading. He wanted to help Lance and Keith in any way he could. Not that reading books was actually useful - Lance had already read every single one in his house and still hadn’t been able to find a way to break Keith’s curse. And Lance knew a lot more about magic than he did. But at least he could _pretend_ to do something useful, which helped settling his nerves.

“Hello? Anyone there? Lance?” Shiro closed the book and made his way towards the kitchen. Both Lance and Keith were away, Lance on his way to distribute some potions and Keith working out. It was up to him to answer Matt’s call.

The moment he entered the kitchen he could hear Matt speaking up again, albeit a little muffled, as if he was facing away from his bucket. “What was the other guys name again?”

“Keith?” Shiro suggested in unison with Katie’s voice.

“Shiro!” Matt exclaimed happily. Shiro let out a laugh and approached the bucket on the kitchen table. It was still a little weird to talk to a bucket full of water but he had done it often enough to be mostly used to it by now.

“How do you keep forgetting his name? I’ve been talking about him for years,” Shiro teased. Truth to be told, Matt was just extremely bad at remembering people’s names. He could probably cite the entirety of their last conversation but when it came to names he just fell short. 

“You - shut up. He has never really been the central topic of our conversations before.” 

“Actually, he has. Several times even,” Katie’s voice piped up again. It sounded as if she was further away from the water and Matt’s muffled _‘why are you still here? Go away!’_ confirmed Shiro’s suspicions. There was a dull thud, then laughter and finally steps distancing themselves. 

“What did you do?” Shiro demanded amusedly.

“Nothing. Just threw a pillow. She’s so _nosy_ , why can’t she accept that I deserve at least _one_ private conversation with you?” Matt was complaining but Shiro could hear the smile in his voice. His best friend had always been an incredibly positive person, something that he had picked up from his father. Katie had it too, but to a lesser extent - she was more like her mother, realistic and down-to-earth. 

“Give her a break, I haven’t seen her in a long while either,” Shiro smiled. He could hear Matt huffing.

“Don’t give me that. She knew you were with Lance for a _month_ and didn’t tell me. She has had enough opportunities to talk to you already - and I know you talked, she didn’t even try to hide how often she visited you guys.” Shiro chuckled, a bit embarrassed at the attention he was receiving. When Matt had come over four days ago he had been with Katie, so it really had been a long time since they had had a private conversation. He would openly admit that he had missed his friend.

“So, how are Lance and Kyle getting along? Didn’t they have a fight when I was over?”

“Keith,” Shiro corrected automatically. He wasn’t angry at him, Matt had never actually met Keith and he was even worse at remembering names if he didn’t have a face to go with them. One day he would love to introduce them.

“Uh, right. Keith,” Matt laughed self-consciously. “Anyway, my question still stands. Everything okay now?”

“Yeah. They made up. Even better: they actually managed to start dating!”

There was a choking noise and the sound of something clattering against the ground. Shiro was mildly concerned. Before he could voice his worries though, Matt spoke up again.

“They got _together?!_ I didn’t expect that! Didn’t you say that they had troubles getting along?!”

“I said they _pretended_ to have troubles getting along,” Shiro reminded him. There was a little bit of silence, then laughter filled his ears.

“Incredible. So what, you are saying that you’re stuck with two dating, lovesick teenagers? Sexual tension much?”

“Matt!” he chided, but couldn’t help his smile. “Keith is like my brother!”

“Yeah but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re apparently living with him and his _boyfriend_ now. If I were you I’d start covering my ears at night.”  


“Keith is sleeping in _my_ room! They don’t - they just started going out! They are not having sex yet.” They didn’t… right? Sure, they sometimes disappeared together for a hours at a time but they didn’t _seem_ to be having sex together. Right? They definitely didn’t do it in the house. That just left the beach or the forest and both locations didn’t exactly seem nice for a-

Shiro groaned and buried his face in his hand. It wasn’t as effective as when he had still had two arms but he’d take what he got. “Just _stop_ , I really don’t want to think about this,” he complained. Definitely not about Keith. Or Lance. God, he _really didn’t_.

Matt laughed some more. “I didn’t even say anything, those images are all your own fault.” 

Shiro choked a little.

“There were no images- god, Matt, _please_ stop this! Now! I really don’t want to think about that.” He paused to clear his head a little. “Topic change. Why did you call?” 

The laughter faded and Shiro imagined Matt shrugging a little. “Just wanted to catch up on stuff.”  


“We already did the catching up thing four days ago,” Shiro reminded him. Matt sighed.

“Geez, Shiro, do you actively work against relaxing a little? But fine, I guess I can talk about the serious stuff.”

“I- sorry,” Shiro mumbled. A heavy sigh left his mouth and he skimmed his hand through his hair, then he started absently tracing the rim of the bucket. He hadn’t wanted to ruin their good atmosphere. “It’s just been… kind of a hard time lately.” 

There was a little silence, then Matt’s voice sounded through the water again. “I know you pretended to be fine when we were visiting but you’re still doing the thing where you’re forcing a smile to hide how bad you’re feeling. And it’s still easy to see through.”

A surprised and slightly bitter laugh was Shiro’s response. “It is? I do?”

“Yeah. And I also know that part of it is your missing arm: to everyone else it might look as if you’ve gotten used to it but _I_ can tell how you’re actively refraining from using your entire right side. It’s as if you’re trying to ignore your injury as much as possible.”

“…it’s almost creepy how well you still know me. And just so you know, you’re still doing that thing where you’re constantly adjusting your glasses whenever you’re feeling awkward. Keep it up and Katie will copy it sooner or later.”

“Wait, I do?!” Matt let out a disappointed noise. “I was actually working to get rid of that, you know. Dad told me it’s distracting when I’m talking to potential customers.”

“It can’t be that bad if he’s still allowing you to talk to them,” Shiro smiled. He let his hand drop from the bucket and stared at his lap instead. Matt was right. He had been walking around, reading, eating, swimming, living his life as usual for a month now but it still freaked him out how there was only one arm resting on his thighs. It was… wrong. It was supposed to be different. How was he going to be of any help to anyone with only one arm?

Still, if he had had the chance to just stay back on that day he wouldn’t have hesitated to let it get cut off again. No one would hurt Keith if he could help it.

Matt grumbled something unintelligible and Shiro’s attention snapped back to the bucket. “What was that?”

_“I said_  actually it’s Katie who’s talking to most of the customers at the moment.”

A moment of silence filled the room, then Shiro let out a genuine laugh. “Forget what I said then.”

“Rude,” Matt complained but Shiro could hear the smile in his voice. Neither of them were the type to stay angry for long. 

“The truth can be harsh sometimes.”

“You’re starting to sound like my sister and it pisses me off. Stop it.” Shiro’s grin deepened and he pulled the bucket a little closer. He had missed how responsive Matt was to his jabs, he was completely different from Keith. 

“Can’t promise anything.”

“You’re _still_ doing it!”

“And I’m not sorry.” Matt laughed and Shiro watched the water ripple. He wondered wether Lance would have been able to cast a spell that also carried images through the water if his affinity with light magic had been higher. It would have been nice to actually see his friends when he was talking to them.

“You’re an asshole. But I guess that’s understandable, staying with two dating-”

“We just agreed not to talk about that!” 

“I’m not sorry,” Matt echoed his words back at him. They both chuckled a bit and let it fade out, leaving the kitchen mostly silent. It was peaceful like this. There was still the faint, always present sound of waves in the distance that stopped any silence from becoming too awkward. It also unconsciously helped him relax, Shiro knew he would miss it once he and Keith left Lance.

He _and_ Keith? Maybe Keith would rather stay with Lance? He was his boyfriend, after all. They were in no rush to leave just yet but he made a mental note to ask him about it later.

Matt sighed then and Shiro could hear him shuffling around for a bit. “I guess I should get to the point now. Dad thinks you should move in with us.”

Shiro blinked at the bucket in surprise. Forget the no rush part. “Why?”

“You stayed away from us because you had to take care of Keith, right? Then you have nothing more to worry about. He’s with Lance now and the beach has been a safe place for the last four years. They are both old enough to take care of themselves and Lance could probably protect Keith better than you can.” He paused a little. “Actually _Keith_ would probably be the one protecting you at this point.”

A sharp pain in his left hand startled Shiro into looking down. He had been digging his fingernails into his palm, creating deep, read half-moon creases. Grimacing a bit, he forced himself to let go and ease the tension in his body - as much as Matt’s words hurt, he was right. There was nothing more that Shiro could do for Keith. He was the one that had landed Keith in the situation he was in now, Keith had gotten cursed because of _him_ , but _he_ wasn't the one that could break the evil magic. That was Lance. And he was probably just in the way of him and his experiments.

Matt interpreted his silence as refusal to listen and continued talking. “There is nothing you can do for them anymore. Lance would probably even appreciate the extra space, both for trying out ways to break Keith’s curse and his new relationship.” A little pause. “Besides, _we need you_.”

Heavy silence settled over them. Shiro wasn’t sure why he didn’t do anything to break it but he left it to Matt.

“…Shiro? Are you still there?”

“I’m here,” Shiro said in a heavy voice. When Matt started talking again, he sounded guilty. 

“I know that losing an arm and seeing Keith cursed has been hard on you. But we need you. We really do. The resistance needs you. You’ve always been more of a leader than me or dad and to be perfectly honest, it’s been a lot harder to keep everyone safe and organized without you. We- we really tried to leave you as much time to recover as possible-”

“No, I get it,” Shiro interrupted him. It was time to stop wallowing in self-pity and face his responsibilities instead. Helping the resistance would definitely help Keith more than uselessly reading already read books. “I’m sorry I left you guys hanging for so long. How’s everything going?”

Matt sighed and Shiro could hear him shifting his weight. “I don’t want to lie to you. It wasn't easy. Still isn’t. Nothing is. A lot of trusted friends had to disappear for a bit. Our hardest loss is probably Iverson, he had to move to the lake, the Galra began to suspect that something was up. They caught on that he bought way more metal than he sold. We essentially need a new blacksmith or we won’t have enough weapons anymore. You already knew that we were growing fast but it’s only gotten more intense since you left.”

Shiro frowned. “What are our current numbers?”

“Around three thousand. It’s getting hard to pass messages along to everyone without someone else hearing rumors. That’s probably part of the reason why there are so many new recruits.”

_“Three thousand?!”_ Last he had heard they were at two thousand five hundred. Five hundred new recruits in two months was… a lot. “Can we trust all of them?” Matt let out a laugh that took Shiro entirely by surprise. “What?!”

“I thought you were asking about the ones we _know_ are trustworthy! In total we should be at five thousand now.”

Shiro kept quiet and leaned away from the bucket. Their numbers had _doubled_ in two months. Suddenly he could see why Matt was so desperate for his help. The resistance never expected to have so many people join them in a seemingly vain fight against the Galra. They weren’t prepared. They didn’t have nearly enough hideouts for possible emergencies. They didn’t have enough weapons, their communication system desperately needed to get updated. Forget updated, they probably needed to completely change it at this point!

_Five thousand_.

With five thousand people, they could raid the castle. Sure, they probably wouldn’t be able to keep it: despite their best efforts barely anyone knew how to fight efficiently and a human farmer simply wouldn’t stand a minute in a fight against a Galran soldier. But they were high enough in numbers to actually start considering starting an open fight soon. And if their allies kept increasing like this…

“Shiro? You still there?”

Shiro shook himself out of his thoughts and leaned towards the bucket again. “Yeah. Sorry. I was just…” he trailed off, sure that Matt would understand what he was getting at. And he did.

“I know. It seems quite insane, huh? I never even would have dreamt that we would get this far. That we _could_ get this far.”

“Yeah.” Shiro wanted to help, he couldn’t believe that he had left them to deal with this alone for two months. He was supposed to be one of their leaders, damnit! 

“Alright, when should I move over?”

“As soon as possible,” Matt replied. “I’m not trying to pressure you, but dad and I need any help we can get.”

“Right. I’ll talk to Keith and Lance as soon as they’re back. With any luck I can be over tomorrow.” Shiro didn’t try to lie to himself, it would be difficult to get Keith to agree to let him go - but it was necessary. The resistance needed his help and he was more of a burden than an asset for Lance. Maybe he could use Lance’s and Keith’s relationship to convince Keith to let him move out without having to mention the resistance…

“You know,” Matt’s soft voice called, “you could always just tell them. They are old enough to know.” Before he had even finished speaking, Shiro was already shaking his head. Matt couldn’t see it, of course, and kept talking. “They probably wouldn’t do anything rash-”

“Impossible. I won’t tell them,” Shiro interrupted firmly. His decision was final.

“Not even Keith? He’s been living with you for six years now, shouldn’t you-”

“ _Matt_.” He wasn’t angry, not really. Shiro knew how unreasonable he seemed with still refusing to tell Keith about the arguably most important part of his life. But Keith was Keith and telling him would only lead to him getting overeager and rushing into fights that shouldn’t be rushed. Besides- “He’s half Galran, so he’s much more responsive to their magic than we are. If he fights with us and comes across a magician, they might take his mind away and force him to fight _against_ us. I won’t risk that. For him _and_ for us.”

There was silence, then a heavy sigh from the other side of the bucket. “Alright, I get it. I won’t force you to do anything, he’s your responsibility. If you really think this is for the best, I will keep quiet.”

“…thank you.”

Matt didn’t really understand. Nobody really did - hell, he wouldn’t understand it either if he hadn’t been there first hand to witness everything.

Matt didn’t understand that despite how much he loved Keith, there was nothing he feared more than Keith losing his mind and turning into his enemy.

 

* * *

 

It was a warm night when Shiro returned home from Matt’s house. He quite liked his job as a carpenter and he would forever be grateful to the Holt’s for taking him in when his parents got killed during a protest against the Galra. Shiro knew that part of their kindness came from guilt. It were the Holt’s that had started the resistance against the Galra but Shiro hadn’t blamed them a single time for the death of his parents. They were good friends, family almost, and he owed them a lot. He had lived with them since he was five years old and had only moved out two a years ago to start his own life.

During these two years he had managed to find himself a tiny house in the city, mostly through his connections in the resistance. He knew about a lot of different hideouts should the worst come to worst and he knew which people to trust. He had also made some friends - Clara, Keith’s mother, was one of them.

Had been one of them.

His neighbor had been the one to tell him about it. He had just reached his door when Ben had called out for him, running as fast as his old, bony legs could carry him. Ben was not only a friend, he was also a rather well-known person in the circles of the resistance. Shiro left the door in favor of reducing the distance between them.

“Ben? What’s wrong?”  


“It’s- it’s Clara,” the old man panted. Shiro placed a reassuring hand on his shoulders and tried to quell his worries. What had happened to her?

“Calm down for a moment and breathe. Just breathe, okay?” He was worried for her, but a hysterical Ben wouldn’t be of help to anyone.

“Can’t- no _time_ \- you have to hurry, the boy’s in danger,” the man managed to push out between gasps. Shiro couldn’t stop his eyebrows from drawing together.

“In danger? Keith? Why, what happened?” 

“Galra- they saw her and- they took a sword and-” the old man made a slashing motion with his arms that made Shiro freeze up in terror. “They’re carrying her head- headed for the boy-”

Shiro didn’t leave himself any time to think.

“Ben. You go home and pretend you know nothing, okay? I’ll go get Keith. I promise I won’t let anything happen to him.”

He didn’t even wait for Ben to finish nodding as he ran towards his house, grabbing his old, rusty sword and then turned to run to Clara’s house. Keith’s house now. Why did the Galra kill Clara? As far as Shiro knew she wasn’t one to break any rules. She wasn’t affiliated with the resistance. She wasn’t dangerous. She had an honest job as a waitress in a nearby bar. There was no reason to target her specifically. And yet-

He reached the street to Keith’s house just in time to see two Galras knocking at the door. The one in the back had sunken his claws into long, silky black hair - Clara.

_Clara_.

The Galra had actually cut her head off, leaving a trail of blood behind them as they made their way towards Keith. Keith, who would have to see the lifeless head of his mother-

A scream. Shiro kept running towards the door, desperately trying to think of a way to get Keith out of there. He was just a boy, just a kid. How old was he now? Twelve? Thirteen? Just old enough to always remember this day but not old enough to ever forget it, especially not on his own.

Just when Shiro managed to get a clear view on Keith’s terrified face, something changed. The ear piercing scream stopped and got replaced by a growl, previously white skin suddenly turned dark purple. 

Terrified beyond measure, Shiro stopped dead in his tracks. The Galra hadn’t noticed him or if they did, they didn’t pay him any mind. They were laughing drily. 

“Well, well, I guess the rumors were true, huh. Someone actually slept with this bitch.” The Galra in the back spit on Clara’s head, then threw it aside. Shiro still couldn’t move, could just watch as Keith - _was that even Keith?_ \- continued to make inhuman noises and transform into something else entirely.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve last seen a halfbreed. They’re smaller than us, right?”

“I think so. It doesn’t matter, it’s just a child anyway. Let’s just kill him, then our job here is done.”

“Guess so. I really thought killing a halfbreed would be more exciting,” the first Galra sighed and drew his sword.

Shiro should move. He _had_ to move, or the soldier would kill Keith. …Keith? Was that… was that _Galra_ still _Keith?_

The moment the Galra tried to stab the boy, Keith launched himself at him. He had moved so fast that Shiro didn't have time to process the sudden change in the situation. It was evident that the Galra had the same problem, he stumbled backward and let out a shout of surprise that quickly turned into one of pain when Keith dug his claws into him.

“What are you doing? Turn around, I’ll take the ki-” The second Galra hadn’t even finished speaking when Keith suddenly bit into the first Galra’s shoulder, ripping out a decently sized piece of flesh. There was more pained yelling and cursing as the Galra tried to get a grip on the child but Keith evaded him. He was too fast for him. He kept biting, scratching and kicking at everything he could get his hands on and within minutes he had reduced the Galra into something that looked more like a lump of raw flesh and blood than a living being. 

That was Keith? Was that really supposed to be _Keith?_ Shiro refused to believe that, there had to have been more to it. An illusion? Why would the Galra create such an illusion?

It became obvious from the way the second Galra screamed and ran away that it was anything but an illusion. The first Galra fell to the ground, not being able to protect himself any longer. Keith immediately lost interest in him, he just turned around and stumbled towards his mothers head.

For a moment nothing moved. The Galra on the street was as good as dead and Shiro was frozen to the spot, terrified of what Keith might do next. But the boy just stood there for several long seconds, looking down at everything he had left from his mother - then his knees suddenly gave out and he harshly fell to the ground. Loud sobbing assaulted Shiro’s years and he just kept staring. 

As soon as Keith started crying, his ears began to shift. Shiro watched as they shrunk, then grew, then shrunk again. Keith’s skin changed colors just to change back again moments later. He wasn’t sure what to make of this: was this Keith? Was this the kid that had brought him soup whenever Clara had once again made too much for the two of them? Was this the kid that insisted on learning how to handle a sword so that he could one day be a “hero” to protect his mother?

Or was this the kid that had just torn a Galra into pieces without giving it a second thought? 

Shiro was terrified of making a wrong decision.

He wasn’t aware of how much time had passed with him just standing there and staring at Keith until he heard gruff voices shouting orders over the sound of heavy sobs. Apparently the second Galra had gotten reinforcements. What should he do? They would be here any moment now.

In a split second he made a decision. No child that cried over the death of their mother deserved death. 

“Keith!” he called out towards him as he ran through a puddle of blood. Keith flinched hard, then whirled around. His face was streaked with tears and blood, eyes wide and terrified as they changed from yellow to dark violet and back. Shiro didn’t hesitate a second to ram his sword into the ground and gather him in his arms.

Keith was shaking badly, body high strung with tension. He didn’t return his hug so Shiro broke it again, holding him at arm's length. He could now even hear the Galra's footsteps approaching, they had to be close.

“Keith? Do you know who I am?” he asked in a hard voice. For a moment Keith didn’t react, only more tears spilling over his eyes. Just when Shiro contemplated knocking him out and carrying him away while he was unconscious, Keith’s appearance changed to human all at once.

“Shiro…?” he asked, voice raw. 

“Oh thank god.” He hugged Keith again and this time Keith leaned into him. The crying started up once more.

“They- the Galra said he killed mom, I don’t- I don’t know what happened- where is mom? Is she- is she really dead Shiro? Do we know for sure? What am I going to do now?”

Shiro could feel his own face turning to stone as he looked directly into Clara’s dead eyes over Keith’s shoulder. Keith didn’t remember. He didn’t remember crying in front of her lifeless head. Did he remember anything he just did? Did he remember attacking, almost _killing_ a Galra?

It didn’t matter anymore. Shiro had confirmed the only thing he needed to know: that yes, this bloodstained, broken child was Keith after all.

The footsteps were incredibly close. They had to leave _now_.

“Keith, hold onto me. Got it? I’ll need both my hands so you’ll have to hold on tight.”

“Shiro-”

“ _Now_.” Shiro could see the first Galra reaching the other end of the street. Keith wrapped his arms and legs around him without question. 

“And now close your eyes. Got that?”

Shiro could feel Keith’s nod against his chest and got onto his feet. He had to hurry, he didn’t know how many Galras there would be. Ignoring the Galra’s scream as he furiously pointed towards them, he pulled his sword out of the ground.

And then he _ran_.

Shiro knew that the moment the Galra had laid eyes on him that he couldn’t go back to the Holt’s anymore. And neither could Keith. The Galra possessed magic that allowed them to show their memories to someone else and after today both of their faces would be known to everyone. They would try to find and kill them - Shiro would have to take him to one of their hideouts for now.

And so he ran and ran. He had to fight at least three Galras back, Keith’s tears drenching his shirt, but he never let go. Somehow he got them to a tiny shack in the forest that would become their home for the next few years. 

They stayed there for four days, not talking about the incident at all before their food ran out. The hideouts were not made to host a single person for more than a week so it wasn’t really surprising. Shiro left Keith in the shack, ordering him not to leave it unless he got attacked. Keith gave his consent, then he headed out.

At the market place he managed to hide surprisingly well. People everywhere were talking about the Galra searching for a halfbreed and a man that helped him escape but unlike the Galra humans didn’t know how he looked like. He got enough food to last them for another four days, then he made his way back.

It was pure coincidence that he overheard the conversation of a group of Galra that would make him keep Keith at home at all costs.

“They say the halfbreed is a monster. He was only a child, but he already killed Torax.”

“Haggar wants to bring him to our side. A halfbreed!”

“He’s more powerful than your average soldier…”  


“Still, a _halfbreed_ …”

“The orders were take him or kill him. I say kill.”

“If he’s really as powerful as they say, maybe convincing him to join us will be easier than killing him though.”

“He’s a half-human, right? Doesn’t that mean he’s weak like them? If we threaten to kill his family and friends he will come to us all on his own.”  


“They are already dead.”

“He has at least another human friend, the man that carried him away. They’re human, it’s easy enough: humans can’t stay alone for long. Sooner or later they’ll make contact with someone and then we’ll know.”

Shiro tried to shove the conversation out of his mind when he came home to a Galran boy, huddled in blankets and crying silently. Keith didn’t say anything when he approached him, he didn’t react to his questions at all - but when he carefully touched his shoulder, he twisted around and enveloped Shiro in a bone crushing hug. He didn’t seem murderous or out of control this time, just distraught and scared. 

If any Galra ever saw him, Keith would be forced to murder in self-defense. Or they’d kill him on the spot. Or somehow twist his mind to join them and become a monster.

Shiro wouldn’t let that happen. Not now, not ever.

 

* * *

 

“What about Lance though?” Matt asked. Shiro sighed.

“We can’t afford to lose Lance. If he fought against the Galra and died, we wouldn’t just lose a friend, we would lose the only human magician there has been for centuries. We would lose our only hope,” he reminded him.

“I understand that, but what use is he for us if we only keep him locked away? What kind of hope is he if he doesn’t even help us?”

“He’s _alive_.” Shiro halted for a moment, then he sighed again and leant his head weakly against the bucket. “I will tell him. Not yet though. If Lance knew about us now, he’d feel guilty for not helping earlier and try to do something stupid to ‘make amends’. And he would tell Keith and we both know that Keith can’t be allowed to fight.”  


“If Lance is a magician, can’t he just protect Keith from their magic?” It was a valid question for someone that hadn’t read as much on the subject as Shiro had in the past few days.

“Impossible. The Galra’s magic is completely different from human magic, Lance wasn’t even able to come _close_ to breaking Keith’s curse. And if- if Lance is close by when they take over Keith’s mind-” Shiro didn’t even want to finish the thought. It hurt too much.

Matt kept quiet. 

“I just- I will tell him eventually. I promise. Right before we make our move so that he can help us but won’t have time to do anything stupid or tell Keith. Just- not now. Not yet.”

Shiro wanted to protect him for just a while longer…

 

* * *

 

He had gotten a message from one of his few contacts - people that were hard to track if they didn’t want to be found, not anything like the Holt’s with their steady home - that there were two teenagers waiting for him, going by the names of “Pidge” and “Lance”. Shiro had never heard of these names before but figured that if they knew him well enough to find one of his close-by contact people they were probably aliases. _And_ they were definitely connected to the resistance so it couldn’t hurt to at least take a look at them.

Nothing could have prepared him for the image that greeted him in the tiny house just a little offside the city.

“Katie?!” he blurted out before he could help himself. Katie’s head whipped up and she stared at him with wide eyes. “What happened to your hair?!”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Shiro.” Tension visibly drained out of her body when she recognized him.

“What happened to your hair?” he repeated the question, his gaze momentarily flickering over to the lanky boy in the corner. 

“I had to cut it off. The Galra saw me running away with Lance so I didn’t have much of a choice,” she answered evenly. She looked surprisingly put together for someone that had just admitted that they were wanted by the Galra. Sure, there was dirt on her clothes and little branches in her hair but she held herself straight. The only thing that ruined the image of self-control were her red rimmed eyes, a telltale sign of tears that Shiro had seen way too often in his life.

“Lance?” Shiro asked. He wanted to know what happened but figured that she would tell him soon enough.

“Lance.” Katie moved over to the boy in the corner and dragged him forward. He seemed reluctant to come along, eyes watery and downcast. His cheeks were dirty and he was trembling all over, the complete opposite of Katie. “This is Lance. He’s a magician, so the Galra are after him.”

“He- he’s a _what?”_ Shiro asked, sure that he had misheard. Human magicians were extinct. He couldn’t be a magician, unless- maybe he was like Keith? Could halfbreeds be magicians?

“A magician,” Katie repeated. She nudged the boy with her elbow. “Come on Lance, say something.”

“I’m sorry,” Lance whispered. Shiro tried to hide his confusion behind a kind smile while Katie rolled her eyes.

“You’re not making any sense. Glad to see that at least something is back to normal.”

Shiro was about to chide her when Lance sent her a wobbly smile. “Guess so.”

“Come on, tell him what happened. He can help you, I know he can. Can’t you, Shiro?”

“Uh. Probably, yes,” Shiro agreed. He wasn’t entirely sure what he should help with - what was that nonsense about being a magician?! - but he wasn’t about to turn someone away that went through the pain of searching for him. Especially not if they were accompanied by Katie. He had explained his and Keith’s situation to the Holt’s through a letter that went through several different people and hadn’t seen them again ever since. 

“I- um, I was in the village with Ka- _Pidge_ and we were supposed to get some clothes for my little brother because he’s growing so fast and winter is coming and it was cold and raining and then the horse came and-” The boy suddenly squeezed his eyes together and bit his lip. Katie immediately pushed him down on a chair and placed a hand on his arm. 

“You okay?” she asked in a low voice. Lance shook his head and pressed his left hand over his eyes, trying to keep the tears in. Shiro didn’t know him but the image broke his heart.

“Alright, I’ll just- sorry. I’ll explain the situation, you calm down,” she said. Then she squared her shoulders and looked Shiro dead in the eyes, no hint of her usual humor anywhere. 

“It was raining and we were out to buy his younger brother some clothes. We never really got that far though because suddenly some important Galra-whatever came towards us, full speed. On a horse. I didn’t hear it through the rain and-” She bit her lip and blinked furiously, the first open display of weakness she showed ever since Shiro had seen her. “-and I almost died. The horse would have stomped me to the ground i-if Lance hadn’t raised a water barrier. Out of nowhere. He was screaming my name and his eyes were flashing and suddenly there was a wall between me and the horse.”

Shiro stared blankly at her, trying to comprehend what was going on. Human magicians were extinct. Maybe the horse had gotten startled by thunder and had suddenly changed directions? Because there was simply _no way_ that Lance was a magician. And flashing eyes? Probably the lightning. 

“Listen, I don’t want to-”

“No,” Katie interrupted coldly, “I know what you want to say. I know what I saw. Lance knows what he did. The ground beneath my feet was suddenly _dry_ , Shiro. It had been raining for hours but suddenly the ground was dry and there was a gigantic wall of water between me and the Galra.” She paused a little, her arm right arm self-consciously rubbing her left one. “The Galra knows what he saw, too,” she finished. 

Silence lay itself over the house. Shiro mulled the story over in his head, trying to find a reasonable explanation for everything. But if Katie and Lance hadn’t done anything wrong, there would have been no reason for the Galra to chase them…

“You said that Lance knew what he did?” he asked carefully. Lance flinched and drew his shoulders up a little higher. Katie nodded decisively.

“He did. He has actually known that he was a magician since a pretty long time already, he had just kept it a secret. A wise decision, if you ask me.”

Shiro couldn’t help it, his eyebrows raised a little. Katie didn’t seem too impressed by that, she scowled darkly and straightened herself out once more. “It’s true. Lance, tell him it’s true.”  


“It’s true,” Lance repeated meekly. “I- I’m sorry if that makes things more complicated-”

“That’s not the issue,” Shiro stated. He frowned at himself at how cold it came out, apparently he had been spending too much time with Keith. Lance flinched again and he sighed. 

“No, wait, that came out wrong. What I wanted to say is that I have a hard time believing that you are a magician. It has been centuries since anyone has last seen a human magician, the Galra made sure of that.”  


“Which is exactly why we’re here right now!” Katie roused. Shiro raised his hands in an attempt to calm her down.

“I know. I just need…” He wasn’t sure how he could say that he needed proof without sounding rude. 

“I can show you,” Lance spoke quietly. He was still trembling but raised a hand in front of his face - and suddenly his eyes were glowing and swirling in an alluring pattern. Shiro watched mesmerized as the tears from the corners of his eyes floated out and formed to a small drop right over his hand.

There was no denying it. This boy, _Lance_ , was a magician. And it wasn’t even Galran magic, Shiro knew that they drew their magic from a crystal. He had also read a lot of stories about human magicians, dreaming of the way the world could have been if the Galra never took over their country. He knew that the flashing eyes were a proof of element-based human magic. 

A magician.

An actual human magician.

Shiro put one hand against the wall in support and raised his other to his forehead. He had to protect this boy at all costs. The Galra would undeniably kill him as soon as they saw him again - and with him his entire family.

Going back was no option.

The Holt’s were no option either, Katie already had to pretend to be someone else. She might make a convincing boy but if the Galra saw her together with Lance they would have figured them out in no time at all.

Keith wasn’t an option either. Their shack was barely big enough for two people, never mind three. Besides Shiro couldn’t put both of the most wanted people on one place, that was a strategically dumb move. It was practically begging for them to be found. 

“Are there any friends you can hide with?” Shiro asked carefully. Lance’s eyes widened and he shook his head wildly. 

“No! I can’t- won’t put them in danger! They- they would be _killed_ if the Galra knew about-”

“Sorry. That was a stupid idea,” Shiro relented immediately. It was the reason he had ruled the Holt’s out in the first place. But if he didn’t want to stay with any of his friends- “If you don’t want to endanger anyone, you will have to live on your own,” Shiro stated. 

Lance was… Lance was just a boy. He couldn’t in good conscience leave him on his own-

“That’s fine. Katie - _Pidge_ told me already. I can cook. I know how to get fresh water from muddy earth. I can do it.”  


“You are just a child,” Shiro frowned. It earned him a laugh from Katie and he turned to raise his eyebrows at her. “What?”

“You moved out when you were sixteen. Lance is fifteen,” she pointed out. Shiro blinked a few times, then looked back at Lance. She was right of course, he hadn’t been much older when he moved out, but Lance… he was a _child_. He couldn’t just leave him somewhere with no one to turn to!

“Are you sure you want to do it like this?” he asked Lance. Lance held his gaze and nodded, apparently finally having calmed down a little.

“And it’s not like he’ll be completely on his own. I don’t care what you say-” Katie said and harshly placed her hand over Lance’s mouth, “I’ll come visit you. Shiro, can you find something close to our house? At the river, maybe? The beach?”

“There actually is a small house by the beach,” Shiro responded without thinking it through. Both kids immediately lit up.

“Perfect! See Lance, I told you Shiro could do it. You can make yourself a home there and I’ll carry one of these magic bucket things you told me about to your family-”

“No! What if the Galra see them?!” Lance immediately protested. Katie rolled her eyes.

“They’ll literally only see water in a bucket. It’s fine.”

“No. No, you won’t do that. I won’t allow you. They have the same skin color as I do and are in the right village, I won’t allow even the slightest hint that they might be connected to me.” Shiro’s heart contracted painfully at the passion in Lance’s voice. He obviously cared a lot for his family. He was a good guy, he didn’t deserve this.

Katie didn’t seem half as impressed by Lance’s decision as Shiro was.

“Alright, fine, you keep your family in the dark. But I will give one to Hunk.”  


“No! No, you won’t! We can’t pull him into this-”

“He’s your _best friend_ Lance, don’t you think he’ll be worried sick about you?”

“Still! You won’t do it! I won’t allow you! You can’t!”

“If _he_ was the magician, wouldn’t _you_ want to get the bucket-call-thingie?”

“I- If- I-” Lance let out a frustrated noise. “That doesn’t matter at all!”  


“It so does. If you don’t give him one, I’ll give him _mine_ and you’ll have to make me a new one.”  


“You wouldn’t dare.”  


“Try me,” Katie challenged and crossed her arms. Shiro knew that pose, Lance had already lost the argument. There was no talking to her when she got like this.

Lance seemed to recognize it as well. He continued his protests, albeit a lot weaker than before. Katie could be incredibly stubborn at times. For once Shiro was glad for it: he felt a lot better knowing that Lance would have people he could talk to if worst came to worst. 

“Alright, now that that’s decided, I’ll have to go home. I’ll let Keith know that I’ll be away for a short while and show you to the house. Then you’ll have to make do on your own though, I still have… things to do over here. Does that sound good?”

Lance looked at him with wide eyes but nodded his head. He seemed scared and Shiro’s instincts told him to hug him. That, however, might be a little too forward for someone he had just met. He settled for placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder instead, Lance’s insecure eyes never leaving him. 

“You’ll be fine,” Shiro promised. He could feel Lance relaxing a little and sent him a reassuring smile. Then he turned around to Katie.

“I’ll be back soon. There should be some corn in the barrel over there if you are very hungry. If you'd prefer to wait, I’ll bring other food.”

And then he left.

 

* * *

 

Matt sighed and Shiro could hear something clink against wood. He had probably set down his glasses to rub at his face, he did that sometimes when he was tired.

“Alright. Alright, I’ll leave it up to you. You’re the leader.”

Shiro grimaced and was glad that Matt wasn’t here to witness it. “I don’t think I should call myself your leader if I wasn’t even there for two-”

“Oh, shut up. I already told you that dad and I are not qualified to do it.”

“Send Katie then,” Shiro joked. It startled a laugh out of Matt and he smiled a little.

“If it was up to her we would be out there kicking Galra ass right this moment!”

“You don’t give her enough credit. We would expertly abduct them from before kicking their asses in a way that no one could miss.” Matt laughed some more and Shiro let himself chuckle along. Tomorrow he would be living with them again, just like before. He wondered whether they would still get along the way they had when he had been a child. 

“Sure we would.” Their laughter faded then until Matt sighed again. “I wish it was that easy.”  


“Me too,” Shiro admitted. He had seen enough fighting and violence to last a lifetime. 

“There’s- actually, there is one more thing I want to talk to you about,” Matt said. He sounded nervous and worried and Shiro was immediately on high alert. 

“Everything okay?”

“No, I mean- yeah! It’s not about me or my family. It’s…” Matt made a distressed noise. Shiro furrowed his brows in concern and wished he could see what kind of expression his friend was wearing right now. “Someone contacted us. They said they wanted to help us. Help the resistance.”

“Didn’t you get a lot of these messages during the last few months?” he asked cautiously. Matt sighed audibly. 

“We did. Sure we did, otherwise we wouldn’t have grown that much. But- this one is different.” He paused and Shiro tried not to let his worry overwhelm him. He had to stay calm and rational for this. Patience. “It’s- okay, I’ll just come out and say it. Whoever it is, they have inside information about the castle’s layout. And the Galra’s military structure. And, most importantly, their magic. We’re thinking that they’re most likely a Galra themselves.”

Shiro froze in shock. A _Galra_ had contacted them? But that meant that they were in danger-

“When?” he asked in a pressed voice.

“Actually- actually it already happened around two weeks ago. They contacted Alvin, we told him to lie low for a while. He’s staying with Xenia and Louise for now. He said he never saw them, he just woke up with a letter addressed to the resistance on his doorstep.” 

Shiro reminded himself to stay calm and think. The Holt’s had done the right thing getting him to safety first, even if they might have lost contact to a valuable source of information. If the person that tried to contact them was actually a Galra all of them were in danger. How did the Galra find out about the resistance? Was it because of the rumors all their new recruits brought with them?

“That’s okay,” Shiro heard himself say. It wasn’t that he believed in his words, but he had to reassure Matt that nothing was lost yet. There always was a way to turn bad situations into an advantage. Even if said ways might be risky. “You did the right thing. Xenia and Louise are living near the Balmera village, right? I want to talk to Alvin as soon as possible.”

“What are you planning?”

Shiro smiled a thin-lipped smile. “Who said I was planning anything?”

“Yeah right. I’ve known you for years, young man, you can’t hide anything from me.”

At that Shiro actually let out a small laugh. “I guess I can’t. You won’t like it though.”

“I know. And that’s exactly why I asked,” Matt answered immediately. 

“You can’t make me change my mind.”  


“Probably not. But I can stop you from doing something overly stupid.” 

Shiro smiled wistfully at the bucket and propped his head up. “I really just want to talk to Alvin for now. Depending on what he tells us, I will try to make contact with the Galra.”

Matt sucked in a sharp breath. “Shiro, you _cannot_ be serious! If we lost you-”

“You won’t.” Keith and Lance would never forgive him for dying after they went through all this effort to save him. “I’ll be careful. And it’s not as if I’ll go alone. I’m not exactly cut out for a fight anymore.”

Matt kept silent. 

“Matt?”

“Still here,” he said. There was a little more silence, then he spoke up again. “It’s- you don’t have to do this. Our numbers are growing steadily-”

“I know. And in another two months we might be big enough to take the castle by force. However-” Shiro raised his voice to stop Matt from interjecting, “if this person - Galra or not - really does want to help us and has this kind of information, it could drastically reduce our losses. Meeting with them might be a risk, but it’s a risk that I’m more than willing to take. We will meet them on our own conditions and see how it goes.”

Before Matt could start talking again, Shiro heard Keith stumble through the front door.

“Shiro? I’m back!”  


“Welcome back Keith!” Shiro called back. He could hear Matt’s muffled ‘alright, I better stop talking now. But this isn’t over! We’ll discuss this tomorrow!’ from the bucket. The water didn’t look any different from before but Shiro instinctively knew that their connection had been severed. He could call Matt back by putting his hand in the water and calling out to him, but why would he do that now that Keith was back? Besides Matt was right - they could talk properly tomorrow. Face to face.

“Is Lance back yet?” Keith asked and stuck his head through the kitchen door. Shiro sent him a smirk and leaned back.

“Missing your boyfriend?” he teased. Keith scowled.

“That’s not- I’m sweaty. That’s it.” 

“Sure,” he shrugged. Keith narrowed his eyes at him but wisely refrained from commenting. Instead he pulled his head out again. 

“I’ll just go change then. Be back in a minute!”

Shiro hummed in acknowledgement and waited for him to come back. It wasn’t as if he had much else to do. He was kind of useless like this…

_Not for much longer_ , he consoled himself, _not for much longer_.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh. Thoughts? I'm really curious about them since this chapter was pretty different from my usual ones^^' The next one will be back to Keith. 
> 
> Also, my post on the magic system now has a second part. It's dealing with rather specific/hypothetical questions that don't really affect the story all that much, but [feel free to check it out anyway](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/152679250268/the-magic-system-in-mmsl-part-2)
> 
> Thanks for reading :D


	10. Freedom and Prisoner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of stuff happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, who the fuck thought that putting the summary before the chapter was a good idea. I want to provide a summary but I don't want to spoil you guys. And that's how we end up with this crap *annoyed look*  
> Okay, mini-rant is over :'D
> 
> ATTENTION: There is some violence and killing this chapter. And panic attacks. Proceed with caution?

Keith was reading the book they had stolen from the Galra’s library when there was a knock at the door. Slightly confused he looked up - Lance had already finished reading it and was now out to collect herbs for his potions as he hadn’t been to the villages in days. He never said anything about expecting someone. Maybe he forgot something?

When Keith opened the door only his instincts saved his life. There was a knife being hurled at his head that he could barely dodge, followed by a punch into his stomach that sent him flying halfway across the hallway. 

There was a Galra at the door.

Not leaving himself time to dwell on the question of how he got past the light spell, Keith ran into Lance’s room, locked the door and jumped out of the window onto the beach. His heart was beating like crazy, how had they found him? Them? Was it because of their trip to the library? 

Was Lance okay?!

The moment his feet touched the ground Keith realized that he should concentrate on something else for now. The Galra at the front door wasn’t alone, there were at least six others with him and all of their eyes locked onto Keith at the same time. _Fuck_.

His mind was reeling. There was no way he could fight all seven of them at once. What should he do? Go back into the house? No, that was a bad idea, the walls and furniture limited his movements and there was too much stuff that the Galra could use as weapons. There weren’t a lot of other possibilities though. Not one to dwell on things, he darted towards the forest instead.

What should he do now? Try to run away?! He _was_ faster than them. Would they follow him? He couldn’t risk to lose them only for them to return to the house and wait for Lance. Even the thought of someone attacking Lance made him want to throw up. No way, he would rather fight unarmed against every single one of them than let that happen.

So fighting it was.

Keith ignored the way blood and adrenaline was rushing through his body and focused on planning instead. He couldn’t fight them all at once. He needed some time to gather his thoughts and find a way out of this.

Still running as fast as he could, he drew his knife and he hid behind the biggest tree he could find. Something - another knife, he noticed - rushed past him and buried itself into another tree to his right. It would have hit him dead on if he hadn’t moved out of the way when he did. 

He could have died.

_Fuck!_

Willing himself to stay calm he risked a glance back. The Galra had almost reached the forest, uncoordinated and out of sync. Good, he could make use of that. He had already survived a bad encounter with Galra before. Multiple times even. He just had to stay calm and focused.

Alright. There was no way he could fight the seven of them together, but if he separated them and fought them one on one he had a decent chance. He could do this. He knew that he was pretty strong for a Galra. He could win in a fight… as long as none of the thrown knives killed him first.

Scowling, Keith set out running again. He couldn’t risk distancing himself too much from the house but he still had to separate them somehow. Darting behind as many trees as possible, he urged the Galra to follow him.

And they did.

It didn’t take long for them to fall apart. Keith managed to collect three different knives, hitting one of the Galra in the shoulder and wasting the other two by making other Galra dodge out of the way. One of them managed to stay pretty close on his heels - the first one he would fight against, he reasoned.

When Keith passed the next tree, he immediately began climbing it. Blade between his teeth, he waited until the Galra was beneath him, then jumped on top of him and knocked him out. He had used the dull side of the knife as he wasn’t too keen on killing anyone but it seemed he had underestimated himself. In the heat of the moment he had forgotten that his Galran appearance made him at least ten times stronger than usual. The skull of the Galra broke with a sickening crack and he dropped to the ground, lifeless.

For a moment Keith just stood there, not comprehending what just happened.

He had killed someone.

He had _killed_ someone.

Keith felt as if he was going to throw up. He had actually just killed someone. Granted, it was a Galra that had most definitely tried to kill him too, but that didn’t make him feel any better. Keith had blood on his hands that he could never get rid of now.

He knew that was never going to be able to forget how dull a Galra’s glowing eyes could become once life had left them.

An angry scream shook him out of his trance, forcing him back onto his feet and dodging a sword that was aimed at his head. The new Galra obviously hadn’t expected Keith to be able to move out of the way on time, he wasn’t able to stop the motion of his sword and it buried it in a tree, leaving it stuck. Keith wasted no time in stabbing for the Galra’s arm. 

Blood. So much blood. No time to think.

He ripped his knife out of the arm, ignoring the pained cry from the Galra. He immediately went for his head next, smashing the hilt of his knife against his skull with significantly less strength than he used on the other Galra. The soldier dropped to the ground, unconscious - at least that’s what Keith hoped - and he stabbed his other arm too. He couldn’t risk him waking up and coming after him with his sword again. Like this he would have a hard time using any weapons.

Only five left.

Keith ignored the blood dripping down his claws and hid behind the next big tree. If the others hadn’t caught up yet he could probably use the same trick as the first time. And sure enough, it worked: he knocked the next Galra unconscious and stabbed his hands. A brief thought about stabbing his legs too crossed his mind, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It would have probably been wise to do so but even just the _thought_ of stabbing a defenseless person, no matter if Galra or not, made him want to vomit. Not after he had killed someone. Not after he had finally been able to look at his reflection again. He wasn’t a monster, he didn’t like violence.

So he kept running instead.

Four left.

Keith wasn’t quite sure how he managed to take out the next three. He remembered a knife being thrown his way and redirecting it with his blade. He remembered two bigger bodies jumping at him at the same time and he remembered losing his knife, being forced to fight with his claws instead. He remembered the feeling of panic and the sound of blood rushing in his ears but he didn’t remember how he got here, shaking but almost completely unharmed in the middle of three unconscious bodies. 

It was terrifying.

Keith’s hands were shaking as he searched for his knife. There it was. It was red and slippery with blood and he absentmindedly dried the worst of it with his shirt. There was still one left. He couldn’t stop now. Methodically he went around, stabbing each of the Galra in their hands, deliberately not checking whether they were still alive or not. Then he grabbed one of the discarded swords on the ground and made his way back to the beach. It wasn’t over yet. Not yet.

Where was he?

“There you are, little halfbreed,” a voice spoke from behind him. Keith jumped and managed to bring the sword up just in time to avoid getting impaled in the chest.

“How did you find me?!” he shouted. “How did you find this house?!” What he really wanted to know was: _do you know about Lance? Is he okay?_

The Galra laughed and pulled his sword back. “We have known where you were for the longest time now. Did you really think Haggar only left a curse on you? That would be foolish beyond measure. She is a very patient person, you know, she was ready to wait for you - but then the tracking spell disappeared.”

Oh god. They knew, they knew, they knew. They knew about Lance. He didn’t remember Lance saying anything about a tracking spell but how else would it have disappeared?!

“The spell disappeared but you didn’t show up. We searched this area for the longest time until we found out about the magic around your house. Thanks to you we have now also found the magician, we owe you our gratitude.”

_No!_

“What are you going to do to Lance?” Keith yelled as he started parrying a series of blows from the Galra. The guy just scoffed.

“Kill him, obviously.”

Keith saw red.

He didn’t know what happened but suddenly he was able to move much faster. He blocked the next strike and ducked under it, using the claws of his left hand to dig into the right arm of the soldier. With a scream the Galra let go of his sword and tried to pull back, but Keith didn’t let him.

_That guy wouldn’t touch Lance._

Nobody would.

Keith pulled his sword back and buried it into the Galra’s thigh. In his struggle to get back and away from Keith, the Galra fell to the ground, pulling Keith right on top of him. Claws were coming for his face but he had expected that, he punched the arm aside and felt it break beneath the force of the impact. He then ripped the sword out of the Galra’s thigh, positioning it right above his heart - and stopped.

What was he doing? Was he trying to kill him?

The Galra gave a pained noise that sounded eerily similar to a laugh. “Haggar was right. You are a powerful one. No wonder she wanted you either dead or on our side.”

Keith was trembling. Was he really about to kill him? Kill another person?

_Again?!_

“…I didn’t believe her. Neither of us did. We waited for you and the magician to separate to attack you, but we still failed.” The Galra paused, then stared straight into his eyes. “Kill me.”

Keith stared back but refused to answer. “Are there any Galra after Lance?” He couldn’t kill this guy. He was already defenseless and injured, he could just leave him like this. There was so much blood… it would be impossible for the Galra to move. Completely and utterly impossible. He could just leave him like this, just like he had left the other guys. It was fine. 

He didn’t have to kill anymore.

A weight he hadn’t even noticed existed lifted from his shoulders.

“Didn’t you listen to me? We waited for you to separate. It would be stupid to let this opportunity pass.”  


“So there are,” Keith concluded. He had to hurry. While he was scrambling to get up as fast as possible, a clawed hand grabbed his ankle. Cursing a little under his breath, he used his sword to slash at the arm, but the grip stayed there as strong as ever. He had to get to Lance, _now_.

“You are a Galra. Why are you pretending otherwise?”

“I am human!” Keith was in a hurry, he didn’t have time for this.

“I have seen you fight just now. You are violent, you are messy, you want to kill. ”

Keith braced himself for the doubts that usually followed these words, waited for the feeling of panic that brought him back to the day in the castle. But it never came. Instead of seeing himself murdering a child, he heard Lance’s voice telling him that he was more than what he looked like. He smiled vaguely. Lance had made him realize that he was human in every way that counted.

“You are smiling, see? You agree. You are bloodthirsty, you want to cause destruction and death.”

The words that had once haunted his dreams now didn’t affect him at all. Keith found himself lost in memories, heard the crack of the Galra’s skull again, felt the way it gave in beneath his knife again. Smelled the scent of blood again. And he felt dread and disgust all over again and he knew with certainty that he would _never_ be a Galra. He might have the body of one, he might have the instincts of one, and he might even think of them as useful sometimes, but he never would be one of them.

“I really don’t,” he answered truthfully. 

It was as if these words lifted another sudden weight from him. He saw the Galra’s eyes widen and his grip slacken in surprise. Was it really that hard to believe that there were people out there that didn’t want to kill others? He didn’t understand Galra, and he never would.

Not one to waste an opportunity when it was presented to him though, Keith got up and started running. He had to get to Lance, fast.

But he was slow.

Looking down at himself, he almost stumbled over air as he came to a halt. His fingers were no longer purple, there were no claws in sight. His clothing hung looser at his body than before and when he reached his hands up to his face he just found purely black hair. And no ears!

Somehow he had returned to human.

Keith wasn’t sure what to think anymore. Everything was happening too fast - first their house had been discovered, then he had had to fight against Galra, then he had actually killed a Galra and then the curse had miraculously lifted itself. And there was still the problem that Lance-

Fuck.

_Lance_.

Keith grabbed the suddenly heavier sword tighter and started running again. “Lance!” he shouted into the forest. “Lance! Lance, where are you? Are you there? Say something!”

He got no response.

It was okay, he told himself. He might still be far away. He didn’t know how far Lance had gotten on his way to get the herbs before the Galra had attacked him.

“Lance? Lance! I know you are somewhere out there!” 

Keith continued into the forest, wishing he would know more than a vague direction about where Lance might be. He had to be close though. Somewhere over here. Lance hadn’t had time to go out that far-

“Lance! Lance! Lance, come on! Where are you?!”

Still no response.

Fuck, fuck, _fuck_. This was all his fault. If he had never come here Lance would still be safe.

“Lance! Lance, please say something! Where are you?!”

He couldn’t take this. Lance had to be alive somewhere. Where was he?! There was no way he had lost a fight against the Galra!

“Lance!” he shouted again.

“Keith?”

“Lance!” Lance’s voice had been faint from the distance but he still seemed fine. Keith had to believe that. Hope bloomed in his chest, maybe the Galra hadn’t found him yet.

“Keith?! Keith, are you okay?!” His voice was coming out of the deeper part of the forest and grew louder in volume the closer Keith got. 

“Lance! I’m fine, where are you?! Did the Galra reach you?! Are you okay?!”

“I’m coming! There- fuck, yes, there were Galra, but I’m fine! Unharmed! What about you?! Keith?!” 

And there he was, finally appearing in the distance. Keith threw his sword aside and hurried towards him as fast as possible, cursing the tiny branches that made him trip on his way there. Lance never stopped shouting for him.

“Keith?! Where are you, I don’t see - who are you?!” 

“Lance!” Keith repeated desperately. Lance was almost within reaching distance, he could see his eyes growing wide in response to his voice. 

_“Keith?!_ Is that - is that you?! What the fuck, what happened, is that-”

But then Keith had reached him and threw his arms around him, drawing him as close as possible. The hug felt a little unfamiliar with him being a smaller now, but Lance was still Lance. He talked like Lance, smelled like Lance, felt like Lance. Keith had never felt so much relief upon seeing another person, it almost made him feel dizzy.

Quickly letting go of him again, he gave him a once-over. There was a little blood on his shirt but Keith knew that it was from his own. He seemed completely unharmed and well apart from the shocked expression. 

“Thank god you are alright,” Keith breathed and tugged him close once again. He could feel Lance’s arms settle around him despite clearly still being confused.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m not sure why they thought that three Galra could hurt a water magician near the ocean. But you - shit, Keith, there is so much blood! And you are-?!” Lance didn’t finish his sentence but Keith knew exactly what he meant. Slowly he loosened his embrace until he was able to comfortably look into his eyes. They were almost at the same height now and he found that he liked it a lot.

“None of it is mine. There were a few Galra but nothing I couldn’t handle.” A thought about a cracking skull wanted to rise up in his mind but he pushed it down again. 

“And yes, the curse got lifted. I’m not sure how but - I’m free. This is me.”

Lance blinked at him a few times, then slowly raised a hand to his cheek. Keith breathed out and leaned into it.

“Okay, okay, that’s - that’s cool, I guess - I don’t really understand but cool. That’s cool. Wait, let me just-” A little bit of water floated towards them, all the way from the ocean and settled around Lance’s hand. Keith felt it wash over his body, taking away the dried sweat and dirt and blood and he sighed in relief. Every last bit of tension left his body together with the water. He closed his eyes and simply breathed, letting the thought of Lance's safety settle into his bones. 

When he opened his eyes again, Lance was still staring at him. He flushed a little.  


“What?”

“I don’t know, I just - I didn’t expect you to be this pretty,” Lance confessed. Keith could feel his face heating up and turned it away.  


“Oh my god! I knew it! That expression totally means you are embarrassed! You _are_ blushing!”

“Shut _up!”_

“Don’t be like that, I think it’s adorable. Your eyes didn’t change at all though.” Keith frowned at him and touched the skin just below his eyes.

“What are you talking about? Are they still yellow?!”

“Nah,” Lance grinned. “But they’re still the same. They are super expressive, you know. Sometimes it was kinda hard to tell whether you were really angry or just pretended to be but your eyes always told me.”

That was so cheesy, Keith didn’t even know how to react. He turned his head to the side and covered his eyes with his hands. Lance laughed and tugged softly at the hair on his neck.

“But Keith, that hair, really?”

Self-consciously Keith reached up to it and batted Lance’s hand away. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

“It’s so long! But only in the back?! And there is so much of it! Why does it curl that way?” Lance waved his arms around while Keith crossed his defensively.

“It’s not as if I’ve had much of an opportunity of cutting it these past months. My Galra hair grows way slower. I’ll cut it if-”

_“No!”_ Lance made a face at how strong that word came out and reached for his hair again. Keith let him, he found that he quite enjoyed Lance playing with it. “I, uh… I like it.”

“Although it’s too long and curls weirdly?” Keith asked with a raised eyebrow. Lance winced and tried to hide his blush but Keith saw right through him.

“It’s… something else. But it suits you, I guess?”

“You guess,” Keith deadpanned.

“Okay, it suits you a lot! It makes you look really hot, happy now?”

It made him look _what?_

Now it was Keith’s turn to desperately attempt to hide his blush. He was doing that a lot today and he couldn’t say he liked it. How could Lance just say stuff like that?!

Lance grinned at his expression and pressed a quick kiss to his hair. “Alright, I’ll take that as an agreement that you won’t cut it. But moving on to more serious topics - how did the Galra find us?”

Oh boy. A wave of guilt overrode Keith but he supposed he owed Lance the truth.

“Apparently they had placed a tracking spell on me. But it disappeared for some reason and they came to make sure that I was still at the same place. They found out about your camouflaging spell around the house and somehow managed to counter it, I guess. Then they waited for us to separate and attack us - the plan was murdering you and either convincing me to join them or murdering me too,” Keith gave a rundown of the situation. Lance frowned a little.

“The spell disappeared?”

“The curse did too, so maybe it has something to do with their magic?” Keith suggested. Lance shook his head.

“That might be true for the spell but curses don’t disappear unless you broke it or fulfilled the breaking condition. Or if the original caster took it back, but as obsessed as the witch was with-” Lance stopped himself and looked at Keith. “What was your condition?”

“Huh?”

“The breaking condition. The condition you had to fulfil for the curse to break. You never told me. What was it?”

Keith furrowed his brows. “I did. It was accepting that I am a Galra.” 

“No, I meant the exact words. That’s really important for a curse, you know?”

Furrowing his brows even more, Keith attempted to remember the day he got cursed. Despite it having happened two and a half months ago, the words came to him with ease.

“ _‘You will not return to looking human unless you accept who you really are.’_ ”

Keith blinked.

Lance stared at him.

“It doesn’t say anything about accepting being a Galra,” Lance pointed out the obvious. Keith felt as if someone had smacked him in the face.

“But I thought- all this time I was beating myself up because I thought the only way to return to normal was to accept that I am a Galra? And in reality it was the opposite?!”

“The opposite?” Lance asked curiously. 

“I was- the guy told me to kill and that I enjoyed injuring people and I-” Keith let out a small, confused noise. “I just didn’t accept it, just the thought of killing people made me sick and suddenly I was-”

This was ridiculous. An incredulous laugh escaped him. He had suffered all this time and in the end it had been this easy?!

But Lance beamed at him and pressed a wet kiss against his forehead. “I knew it! See, I told you all along, you are so much more than what you look like! You would _never_ willingly hurt vulnerable people!” he cried out in triumph. Keith tried to make a disgusted face as he rubbed Lances salvia from his forehead but he couldn’t stop smiling either. He was fine. He wasn’t cursed anymore. He was human. He knew he was no monster, and he had someone that loved him.

And fuck, he loved him back.

“That doesn’t explain why the spell disappeared though,” he said, bringing them back on topic. Lance puckered his lips a little, thinking until his expression suddenly changed to understanding.  


“Oh my god. I did that. That was me. The day I attempted to lift your curse I also lifted every single spell that was ever placed on you. Because they were distracting, you know… Holy shit, I lifted a Galran spell and didn’t even notice!” He sounded incredulous. Keith grinned and elbowed him in the side. 

“I told you. I told you your magic was amazing.” Lance smiled sheepishly at him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know you did. Still, it’s incredible! I lifted a Galran spell as if it was nothing, _I_ _didn’t even notice_ \- oh my god, Keith, I am a genius, I feel as if I could light a candle right now!”

Keith laughed out loud, knowing exactly how sensitive Lance still was about fire magic. “Maybe. You can use me to help you out, apparently I have a fire affinity,” he teased.

Lance’s face went completely slack in surprise. For a moment Keith was concerned that he had said something wrong, then he grabbed Keith’s shoulders and shook him. “Oh my god! Keith! I could probably _actually_ light a candle with your help! I don’t - why didn’t you say something earlier?! Shit, I have to try this right now!” Overly excited Lance reached out for a tiny branch at the ground and extracted water until it was completely dry. Keith blinked but made no move to stop him. When looked over at Keith expectantly, Keith shook his head in mock exasperation but placed his hand over Lance’s, holding the branch together with him. Lance sent him another blinding grin before closing his eyes. His face went relaxed and then… 

Time trickled by while nothing happened. 

With each passing moment Keith grew more and more anxious. Lance still looked mostly relaxed, but there was a tiny bit of sweat gathering at his forehead. Maybe he had made a mistake by suggesting this, maybe magic didn’t work this way - then Lance suddenly gasped and ripped his eyes open. Keith caught a glimpse of a fading blue glow but then got distracted by the flame on the branch.

A tiny, but burning hot flame.

Lance let out an incredulous huff of laughter, staring at the branch as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His moth opened and closed uselessly for a few times, then he started laughing for real.

“Keith! Oh my god! Keith, did you see that?! Did you- _do you see this?!_ It’s on fire! It’s _burning!_ Keith, _Keith_ , I used fire magic-”

“I know,” Keith managed to get out. He was desperately trying to hold back laughter at Lance’s excitement. Lance waved their hands with the branch around as if he was trying to show it to the whole world.

“I fucking did it! I finally fucking _did it!_ This is - is this real?! This isn’t a dream right? Keith, tell me it isn’t-”

Thinking back on the Galra attack Keith grimaced. “If it was it was a pretty horrible dream.”

“But Keith! Can you believe this? _Actually believe this?!_ I just did fire magic! Real fire magic!”

“I know. I saw. And it wasn’t just a spark either, you set it aflame.” He had meant for it to come out teasingly but when Lance looked at him with tears of happiness in his eyes it came out softly instead. Before he could realize that Lance was moving, he had suddenly thrown himself against Keith, pulling him into another hug. 

“Thank you, Keith,” he whispered in a serious voice, overwhelmed by emotions. Keith swallowed and returned the hug, trying to get a handle on the rush of affection flowing through him. 

“I don’t really get what you are thanking me for but sure thing,” he answered. A soft laugh escaped Lance’s mouth.

“I couldn’t have done this without you. We are a… a really good team.” 

Keith didn’t respond, choosing to hug Lance a little tighter instead. They didn’t stay like this for long though because Lance was pulling back again, still throughly in awe of the tiny fire. 

“It’s beautiful. It’s amazing, look at this. It’s alive! I made it!”

“It’s gonna burn your hands any moment now if you don’t put it out,” Keith pointed out. Lance shot him a haughty look.

“Do you think I care? I did this, Keith. This is _my_ fire.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

A few moments later Lance dropped the branch with a shout, stomping it out to keep the fire from spreading. Keith had to fight not to face palm himself. He raised his eyebrows at Lance and got a narrowed glare in return.

“Not. A word,” Lance hissed. An amused smile played around Keith’s lips and he shrugged.

“Didn’t plan to. As long as you know…”  


“I fucking hate you and your smartassery,” Lance grumbled. He was still smiling though, as if the world had just given him its biggest treasure. 

“That word doesn’t exist.” Keith stepped up to Lance to inspect his hand for any damage. The skin was a little red but nothing more. 

“Yeah, whatever, you’re illiterate.”  


“I haven’t been illiterate for weeks now.” Keith rolled his eyes but intertwined their hands, dragging Lance back towards the house. Now that the Galra knew where they lived, they should probably move out as soon as possible. A pang resonated through his chest and Keith suddenly realized that he would miss this place. Over the past months it had truly become his home.

“Doesn’t matter. The only thing that matter was that you _were_ illiterate,” Lance claimed. Keith glanced at him, trying to figure out whether he was serious or not.

“According to your logic your opinion doesn’t count either. I doubt that you were born being able to read.” Lance spluttered a bit but apparently couldn’t find anything else to say. Instead he pressed a surprise kiss against Keith’s temple.

“Fine, fine, I get it, you’re smarter than me.”

“I never said that,” Keith replied, grinning. “But I will remember this and tell you the next time you call me stupid for disliking peppermint.”

“Now you are just being a plain idiot, I take everything back! You are way dumber than me!” 

They continued their walk back, hands comfortably swinging between them, arms brushing occasionally. Keith didn’t focus too much on the conversation, it was familiar banter that he easily fell into. He concentrated on the sand shifting beneath his feet and how it was simultaneously easier and harder to cross the beach in his human form. And their hands. They were able to properly hold hands now! If Lance noticed that he wasn’t really concentrated on the talk, he didn’t say anything.

When they reached the house Keith finally voiced his concerns about moving. Lance wasn’t too happy about it.

“I know you don’t want to leave and I honestly don’t want to either but we don’t know how long the Galra have been here for. Did they have time to report our exact location to the others? If so it we might not be able to escape another ambush like the one today.”

“I know! I know, okay?! I know it’s too dangerous to stay here. But I honestly don’t know where else to go, if the Galra found me anywhere where I wasn’t surrounded by water I would be dead within minutes.”

Keith pressed his lips together. Lance had a point, he wasn’t much of a fighter outside of his magic. His body had some muscles from all the time he spend swimming and walking between the villages but he wasn’t regularly working out the way Keith did. And he certainly wasn’t experienced. 

“Is there another place else nearby where we could hide for now?” Keith asked finally. Maybe Shiro knew of another hiding spot near the ocean, he always seemed to know-

Cold terror flooded Keith’s veins. It must have showed on his face because Lance was there immediately, holding his shoulders and looking into his eyes worriedly.

“Keith? What’s wrong?”

“Lance,” Keith said in a panicked voice, “they said they had been watching us for a long time already. What if they know about Shiro and Pidge?”

At first Lance seemed confused as if he wasn’t sure whom Keith was talking about. Then understanding dawned and fear took over his features. Not wasting any time, he hurried into the kitchen towards the bucket, dragging Keith behind him. For a moment he seemed too panicked to do anything, then he put his hand into the water and brought his face as close to the surface as possible.

“Pidge? Pidge?! Pidge, are you there?!”

There was rumbling and a crash.

“Shiro?!” Keith joined in.

“Matt! Pidge! Shiro! Anyone!” Lance screamed into the water.

There was a faint, irregular sound that grew louder over time. It took Keith a while to recognize that it were footsteps and by the time he noticed the owner of the voice had already spoken.

“Lance? Jesus, why are you screaming so much? You scared the life out of me!” Pidge complained. A rush of air left Keith and he had to steady himself against the wall for support. She was there, she was fine.

“Are you okay? What about Shiro? Matt? Your parents?” Lance pressed on. The tension returned to Keith’s body as they waited for a response.

“…did something happen?” Pidge asked, voice suddenly dubious.

“Just answer the question!”

“They are fine. Dad and Matt are working on a table and Shiro is helping mom in the kitchen. I was just about to get started on a simple chair for your family, it appears that Tristan accidentally broke one when he piled three of them together to reach the roof.”

Lance let out a relieved laugh. “So they are fine, too?”

“I… um. I’d like to say yes but I actually don’t know for sure? I mean, they’re probably fine. Hunk contacted me for the chair two days ago, so it hasn’t really been that long. _Theoretically_ something could have happened though?” Pidge was very obviously looking for answers but neither of the boys gave any. When Lance froze up, Keith took over.

“Alright, thanks, we’ll go check up on them now. Make sure to _not_ come here for a while, the Galra know about this place.” He nudged Lance with his elbow, making him shift the connection from Pidge to Hunk. Pidge was still protesting about wanting an explanation but they didn’t have time for that. They had to check up on Hunk and Lance’s family, they could call Pidge again after making sure that they were safe. 

No one answered Lance’s calls.

“Hunk? Hunk, please, come on buddy. Hunk?! You’re there, right?!” 

Keith swallowed against the sudden dread creeping up his throat. Lance grew more desperate by the moment.

“Hunk?! Mom?! Dad? Elena? Tristan?! Becca!” 

No answers. He couldn’t take it anymore.

“Hunk!” Keith joined in. “Hunk, answer the fucking call! We’re worried!” They kept screaming at the water surface until it suddenly rippled. Keith startled, as far as he was aware it wasn’t supposed to do that. He looked up at Lance to ask him about it but what he saw made the words die on his tongue.

Lance was crying. 

Fuck.

“Lance!” Lance’s head snapped up and his eyes found Keith’s, wide with fear and tears. 

_Fuck!_

Keith gripped his arm and dragged him away from the bucket. He resisted at first but another insistent call from Keith made him pliant and he let himself be guided towards the table. 

“Lance. They are probably fine. Maybe Hunk spilled his water. Maybe-”

“It’d still work!” Lance interrupted him. He had buried his hands in his hair and desperately squeezed his eyes together. “Even if he spilled it, it’d still work! We should be able to hear something. Footsteps, voices, anything! I don’t - I don’t know what this _means_ -”

In a split second Keith made a decision. 

“Alright, we’re going there.”

Lance whipped his head around and stared at him. “We’re what?”

“We are going there,” Keith repeated. His thoughts were running wild but he wouldn’t second-guess this. Lance needed to know that his family was safe. And if they weren’t… if they weren’t, then Keith wouldn’t just stand by and ignore it. The Galra had already done too much damage to their lives, it was time they paid for that.

“I’m not - Keith, we _can’t_ go there, what if the fault is with my magic? What if there are Galra waiting for us to appear? What if they find out that I know Hunk, that the people living there are my family? Keith, they’d be killed in an instant, we _can’t_ -”

“If they are waiting there for us then our magical calling already exposed our connection. They could be in danger-” Keith cut himself off and suppressed a wince. Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say to Lance… Lance, who was still pale and shaking from panic. 

“We- no, they can’t, they- Keith, they are safe, they have to be safe, right?” Lance sounded so vulnerable that Keith had to look away at his next words.

“I wish I could tell you that they are safe. But we don’t know. They are not answering, so we won’t know unless we get there.” Strained silence filled the air between them and Keith hesitantly raised his head to look at Lance again.

Lance was clenching his jaw, visibly fighting with himself. Keith understood: Lance had kept away from his family for years to make sure that they would be safe. He obviously cared a lot about them. Keith might not have any blood relatives anymore but he knew exactly what it meant to worry about one’s family. 

Finally Lance looked at him again. His expression was pained and Keith could see the tension in his shoulders but there was determination in his eyes. “Alright. Alright, we’ll go there. We have to hurry, it takes around a day to get there. We… we should also probably pack some food-”

“No need,” Keith interrupted. “I’ll carry you.”

Lance, who had already started to pile some bread and dried meat onto the table, froze in his actions. “You can’t - Keith, you’re human now.”  


“I will shift back,” Keith insisted. Lance kept quiet, then slowly met his eyes again.

“But you… you just got back to normal…” he whispered. Keith schooled his face into a neutral expression, he couldn’t let Lance see how uncomfortable the thought about becoming a Galra once more made him. What if he couldn’t shift back? What if he would be stuck looking like a monster, this time for good?

“I don’t care. You said it yourself, Lance: I am more than what I look like. Even if I am not able to shift back again I will do this.”  


“You won’t be able to shift back again?!” Lance’s voice had gotten to a higher pitch. 

“I said ‘even if’-”

“Forget it! We’ll go on foot! I won’t make you suffer your entire life just because I am not sure whether my family is home!”

Keith could feel himself scowling. “It’s more than that and you know it, Lance. Last time Pidge heard from Hunk was _two days ago_ , we can’t afford to waste another entire day-”

“Keith! No! I won’t allow you to do that! I won’t come with you, you won’t know where they live-”

_“Lance!”_ Keith let just enough urgency seep into his voice to get Lance to listen to him. “Use your head for once! I might not be able to shift back or I might be, but what is more important here? Will you like me any less because I look the way I did for the past few months?”

Lance shook his head and opened his mouth to respond but Keith didn’t let him. 

“Then think! What is more important to you, the way I look or the safety of your family?!”

Lance looked troubled and Keith knew that he was being unfair. He knew that Lance protested against his plan because he was worried for him but now simply wasn’t the _time_. Even if he appreciated it.

“You know my answer,” Lance finally whispered, “but what is yours? Spending your life in a body that makes you despise yourself or the safety of a few people you have never met?”

For a few moments silence filled the house. Keith fought against the fear in his stomach that was telling him to let it go and just walk there. He couldn’t do that. That was… that was _wrong_. That would mean that he was wasting time. Time that could be crucial to the surviving of Lance’s family. And if they died because of him? Then he would be nothing but a murderer. 

“If I have to choose between looking or acting like a monster I’ll choose looking like one a million times over,” Keith answered honestly. 

Lance still looked torn but nodded at him after a few moments. Keith took it as his cue to turn away from him and shift into his Galran form.

He hadn’t shifted in a long time. When the curse fell away it was as if someone had lifted a suffocating blanket that covered his entire body, but shifting was completely different from that. Keith could feel something gathering in him, pressing against every part of his body, increasing the pressure until it was just too much and he exploded. Only that he didn’t explode, he just changed his human appearance into his Galran one. 

Lance let out a tiny gasp but Keith didn’t pay it any mind. He got onto his knees instead, arms lightly extended to the side, waiting for Lance to get on his back. There was a little shuffling, then Lance’s familiar legs brushed against his side and he hoisted him up. They had already run a total of four days like this and he was used to the way Lances arms settled around his shoulders, his head leaning against his neck. 

Lance’s heart was beating faster than usual. His body was a lot more tense and his hands gripped at Keith’s shirt with an urgency he hadn’t used before.

He was worried.

Not one to waste any more time, Keith got onto his feet and left through the back door. He took care to enter the forest far away from where he had left the injured Galra, that was not a sight that he wanted to subject Lance to. Not now, definitely not now. 

They started running. Lance only spoke when he showed Keith which direction he should turn to and Keith followed without hesitation. They really didn’t have time to waste. Lance’s family could be in danger. 

Or, he reminded himself, they could be perfectly fine and they were worrying about nothing. While this would mean that he had shifted into his Galra form for nothing, he would much prefer it over the alternative. Then Lance could stop half-suffocating him and return to his usual happy self.

Keith tried, he really tried to hold onto this hope. But the closer they got to the destination and the tenser Lance got on his back, the more a bad feeling crept up to him. When they arrived at the outskirts of a village, Lance struggled and demanded to be let down. Keith complied.

“Now shift back.”

Keith gave him a dark look. “No. I’ll not leave you defenseless.”

“I’m not defenseless! There is always some water around. Besides a Galra would attract a lot of unwanted attention,” Lance argued. Keith had to admit that he had a point but if they were walking right into a trap he wouldn’t be useless.

Besides he was scared to try to shift back only to realize that he might not be able to do it anymore.

“I don’t care! Use your magic to disguise me or something! My human form is way weaker-”

“Keith! Please?” Lance’s voice sounded strained and Keith halted. Now that he took a closer look, Lance was _scared_. He was tense enough to start trembling and his complexion was unnaturally pale. Unsure of what to do Keith simply stood there, staring at him.

“I - please turn back? I doubt that you’re useless in your human form. I’ve seen you train in front of my house and your movements speak from experience. A Galra really will attract too much attention. And I can’t waste my magic on hiding you. You know I’m no good with light magic. And - and I really need to know that I didn’t ruin your life again after you finally freed yourself.” Lance’s voice had gotten quieter and quieter throughout the whole thing. Keith wished he could do something to offer actual comfort but he doubted hugging him out of the blue would do the trick. Maybe he should just… comply for once.

Breathing in deeply, Keith pushed against his skin. The pressure increased and increased until it became too much and turned himself outwards. Instead of exploding, Keith felt as if something tugged at him and forced him into a form that was smaller than his body - but the feeling evened out soon enough and he was left standing shorter than before.

Human.

Keith wasn’t aware how much he had worried about not being able to return to normal until he had done it. He tried to suppress his smile but when he saw Lance’s expression mirroring his feelings he gave up on that.

“I’m totally fine,” he stated the obvious. Lance huffed out a laugh and ruffled his hair. Keith hadn’t seen that one coming, he ducked out of the way too late.

Or it might have had to do with the fact that he really enjoyed Lance’s hands in his hair. He wouldn’t think about that too much.

“Obviously. Y’know, I don’t think I’ll ever get over how hideous your haircut is.”

“You just said a few hours ago that I shouldn’t cut it because it makes me look hot.” Lance winced and tried to hide his embarrassment behind a pout. A pretty bad attempt if you asked Keith. He was way too easy to see through. 

“Doesn’t mean it can’t be both terrible and hot. You’re full of contradictions anyways.” Before Keith could ask Lance what he meant by that Lance send him a strained grin. “Buddy, I know you want to hear more compliments but now isn’t really the time. Come on, we’ve got a job to do.”

Disregarding the first part of his sentence, Keith couldn’t say Lance was wrong about that. But in contrary to his words, Lance didn’t exactly seem as if he wanted to go.

“Hey. You okay?” Keith asked when Lance pushed him a little towards the first houses. 

“Who? Me? Pfft, I’m super good-”

“Lance-”

“I mean, why wouldn’t I be fine? I’ll get to see my family for the first time in years-”

“Lance-”

“Oh man, can you imagine how much Elena and Jim will have grown? Last time I saw them they were still children-”

“ _Lance_.”

Lance finally shut up and stopped pushing at Keith’s shoulders. Keith immediately used the opportunity to turn around and search for his eyes. He was avoiding his gaze, biting his lip as he looked to the ground.

Lance wasn’t okay.

“We’ll check for them. If they are there you can tell them hello, if they aren’t there we will sneak into the castle and free them,” Keith said decisively. Lance still wasn’t looking at him.  


“What if they- what if they are-” The horrible choking noise Lance made told Keith exactly what thoughts ran through his head. He himself was no stranger to them, he just wished it would help him with easing Lance’s troubles. Unfortunately there wasn’t much he could do other than staying by his side, no matter what sight would greet them at his family’s house.

“They are not dead,” Keith stated bluntly. 

“How can you-”

“I just know it. Trust me on this.” There was no real explanation for his feeling but he knew that he could trust his instincts. Instinct had made him start trusting Lance earlier than he would trust other people. Instinct had allowed him to fight and win against the Galra earlier. And now instinct told him that Lance’s family was still alive, even if they might not be at home anymore.

Lance seemed a little wary but nodded eventually. He laced their fingers together and guided Keith along the tiny streets of the village, never raising his head to look at anyone. At first Keith had been confused by his behavior, then he remembered how careful Lance was not to get involved with anyone lest the Galra killed them for it. So he kept walking next to Lance, mimicking his position and mainly looking at the ground.

Before long they took a left turn, revealing a tiny stream that cut through the village. Lance’s hand suddenly tightened and Keith looked around, more alert than before. They had reached another border of the village. Behind the water there were long fields of crops that stretched themselves as far as Keith could see. There were also less houses around and next to no people, at least this time around. Judging from Lance’s actions they had to be close.

“It’s the first house after the next turn,” Lance breathed. Keith squeezed his hand reassuringly and tugged him along, wasting time wasn’t doing them any good. The sooner they knew what happened to Lance’s family the sooner they would be okay.

But the moment they turned around the corner and got a good look at the house they froze up.

It hadn’t looked this bad from the backside. In fact it hadn’t looked bad at all from the backside. But now that they reached the front door they saw crashed pots, broken doors and splinters of wood that had probably been pieces of furniture before. Everything was trashed but it was obvious that the Galra hadn’t been here for at least a day anymore.

Lance wasn’t saying anything.

Keith didn’t want to know what expression he was wearing.

Silently, he tugged at Lance’s had a little. “Come on, we have to get in-” Lance’s strangled noise immediately made him stop in his motions.

“I- I can’t, Keith, what if they- what if they aren’t- look at what they’ve done to our house I can’t-”

“Lance!” Keith stepped forward, creating a physical barrier between Lance and the building. He was even paler than before and his wide eyes told Keith that he was on verge of a panic attack. How did one deal with panic attacks?! He had to calm him down somehow!

Keith harshly brought his hands to Lance’s shoulders and shook him a little. Lance stopped staring at nothing but didn’t exactly seem any calmer than before. “Lance. You have to… breathe. Okay? Breathe. Don’t think about them for a minute. Just breathe.” Lance seemed to struggle to follow his instructions and Keith had to stop himself from cursing loudly. “Lance. Lance! Look at me. Just look at me, okay?”

Finally Lance settled his eyes on him, panic still clear as day on his face. His breathing was still erratic and he was still shaking badly but he seemed to be able to focus.

“Okay. Cool. Keep looking at me. Can you, um… can you see… my eyes?”

Keith was going to be honest here, he had no clue what he was doing. He just hoped that he would be able to help Lance. He had to get him out of his thoughts. 

After a while Lance nodded, but didn’t make any attempt to speak yet. _Calm him down, calm him down, calm him down_ , Keith’s mind whispered at him. Lance still looked as if he was just moments away from tears.

“Good. Uh. Can you… can you also see my eyebrows?” Another nod. “My nose?" Another nod. "My... my mouth?” Another nod. “Okay. Lance, I want you to keep focusing on my mouth and nose. Look at the way I’m breathing and… copy it. Breathe in, breathe out. Slowly. Okay?”

Lance nodded.

Keith began to breathe exaggeratedly, never once letting his eyes stray from Lance’s and never taking his hands from his shoulders. He was still shaking so badly… slowly but surely Lance’s breathing calmed down and started to match his. Keith didn’t know when it would be safe to stop so he just kept standing there, breathing slowly and waiting for Lance to give him a sign.

After a little more time Lance let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes. He was still trembling, Keith noted, but all in all looked a lot better than before.

“Hey. You… you better now?” he asked softly.

Lance let out a weak laugh. “I’m awesome. Just… give me a little more time? I don’t - I really don’t want to go in there.”

“You don’t have to,” Keith answered immediately. Lance’s eyes snapped open and he shot him a questioning look. “I mean, you can wait out here. I’ll go in there and check everything and if I find something I’ll call for you.”

Lance frowned a little. “No, no, that’s- I can’t make you do all the work, they are _my_ family-”

“And you are my _boyfriend_ ,” Keith interrupted exasperatedly. “I already told you, they are not dead. I know that. No matter what I find in there, it won’t be their dead bodies. So you can just sit down here,” Keith pushed at his shoulders, “and wait for me to bring something back. The river is close by, you can get yourself some water.” Another insistent push had Lance lowering himself onto the ground. Keith tried to not let his worry show too much but was pretty sure he failed. Lance wasn’t supposed to comply without any protests. Lance wasn’t supposed to tremble and not be able to keep himself on his feet. 

Keith clenched his left hand into a fist and let his right one stay on Lance’s head for a moment. Lance had closed his eyes again, slouching a little on himself. It almost seemed as if he was trying to make himself look as small as possible… Keith wasn’t good with this sort of thing. How was he supposed to offer comfort?!

“I’ll be going now,” he announced and started towards the broken down door. The moment his hand left Lance’s head, he could feel Lance grasping his wrist instead. He halted his movements and looked back.

“I- just-” Lance lifted his head to look at him, expression open and fragile. “Thank you.”

Keith clenched his jaw and forced himself to nod. Lance _wasn’t_ supposed to look like this. He just wasn’t. It disturbed him more than he would like to admit.

“Remember the water, you look as if you could use some,” he awkwardly said in lieu of a goodbye and tore himself apart from Lance. The sooner he found hints about where the Galra had taken Lance’s family, the sooner they could leave. And Lance really needed to leave this place. 

Carefully Keith stepped over a large piece of wood - presumably part of the front door - and entered the house. The room appeared to have been a kitchen of some sort: there was a turned table, broken dishes and chairs. One of the shelves had been torn down and Keith saw a discarded knife at his right. No blood anywhere though. He considered it a win.

Slowly he made his way in between the shards. He flinched when he accidentally crunched one of them beneath his feet, his right hand automatically reaching for his knife. But there was no one else with him and Keith felt a bit stupid for reacting like this. Lance would alert him if someone entered the house. He had nothing to worry about.

Drawing in a deep breath, Keith focused on reconstructing what happened in here. The door had obviously been broken in by force and one of the chairs looked as if someone might have thrown it in self-defense at a Galra. Keith got to his knees and picked up the discarded knife - it was a normal kitchen knife, he could just assume that whomever had been in the kitchen had tried to defend themselves with it. Not very successful as the lack of blood pointed out.

Keith threw it back onto the ground and made his way around the table. There was a narrow stairway leading to a second floor, next to it was a small door leading to more rooms. The kitchen didn’t seem to tell them anything about Lance’s family’s whereabouts so he would have to check the rest of the house too. Casting once last glance behind him, Keith took the first step.

And stopped.  


There was a small piece of paper, fastened to the turned table with a dagger. Scratchy black writing caught Keith’s eye, it had obviously been pinned there for a reason.

The Galran dagger really was all the explanation he needed.

Keith moved as fast as he could, carelessly ripping the paper off and attempting to understand the words. It was no good, he had only learned how to read a few weeks ago and was still eerily slow at it even when the writing was legible. He would have to present this to Lance.

Cursing a little, Keith tugged the dagger out of the table too. It was heavier than his knife and the handle dug uncomfortably into his hand, it wasn’t designed for humans. Still, he wouldn’t leave it here, the Galra had already done enough harm to this house. Lance would probably be able to tell whether it was cursed or not.

Keith deliberately waited to call out to Lance until he was out of the door again. Lance was probably still in shock about seeing his house like that, there was no need for him to enter it and be faced with the destruction in the kitchen. 

“Lance!”  


Lance whirled around from where he had his hand stretched out towards the river. The little bit of water that had started flying towards him fell back to the ground.

“Keith,” he exhaled shakily, shoulders slumping in relief. Keith frowned a little and sat down next to him.

“You okay?”

“Fine. Just thought that someone saw me,” Lance replied. His expression was weary and exhausted as if he had crossed today’s emotional limit hours ago. He probably had, but so had Keith, if he was completely honest. Getting attacked by the Galra, having his curse lifted and then fearing for his friends' life was enough action for the entire month, he just wanted to sleep.

Not now though. Not yet. Maybe after they had gotten Lance’s family back.

“Why’d you come back? Already finished looking through the house?” Lance sounded as if he doubted that. Understandable, the house was definitely too big for Keith to have inspected it all in such a short amount of time. He handed Lance the paper, keeping the dagger to himself for now.

“That was attached to the table.” For a moment he thought about admitting that he wasn’t able to read it but figured that Lance would tell him anyway. Lance frowned a little, eyebrows pinching together in a way that could have been adorable in another situation and his eyes skimmed the paper.

The further he got, the more his eyebrows pinched together. Keith started to worry.

“Lance?”

“I’m- they- how are we gonna get them back?!” He had started trembling again. Pressing a hand to the small of his back, Keith tried to get another look on the paper. Still illegible for him. He frowned harder.

“What does it say?”

“They took them. They took them to the castle. Keith, they’re prisoners now, they-”

Well, it could have been a lot worse, Keith reasoned. “We can get them back,” he said reassuringly. Lance shook his head, face still painfully scrunched up.

“They are waiting for us to show up. It says - it literally says that if the Galra that were supposed to attack us failed they would be waiting for us in the castle. They - they want to negotiate, my life against theirs, _our_ life agains theirs and I don’t- what are we supposed to do now?!”

Keith could feel another panic attack coming so he reached for the paper and tugged it out of Lance’s hands. “I don’t know about you but I think this is pretty good news,” Keith stated. Lance turned his head to stare at him disbelievingly.

_“Good news?_ Keith, did you even _listen_ to me?! They are luring us into a trap and- and I will have no other choice but to go! They might kill them! Keith, they might kill them if we don’t go there fast enough!”  


“And we will go there,” Keith shrugged. His hand was still pressing against Lance’s back but Lance didn’t even seem to be aware of it anymore. His arms were flailing around to underline his point.

“If we go there, they will kill us!” he shouted a little hysterically. Keith frowned and opened his mouth to answer him but Lance suddenly closed off and grabbed his shoulders. “I won’t allow you to die for my family. I don’t - there has to be another way-”

“Believe me, I wasn’t planning to,” Keith snorted. How words finally snapped Lance out of whatever dangerous circle his thoughts had spun into.

“What are you…” he began but let the sentence trail of. Keith huffed and grabbed his wrists, pulling them from his shoulders into his lap. The paper and the dagger lay next to him, not important anymore.

“I already broke into the castle successfully. Twice. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work a third time,” he announced. Lance shot him an unimpressed look but intwined their fingers, his thumbs brushing incessantly over Keith’s fingers.

“They are expecting us this time,” he pointed out. 

“Technically they were already expecting me the first time,” Keith said. Lance was right though, they would have to be a lot more careful this time. They needed a plan.

“Uh… this isn’t exactly the same thing as you _maybe_ breaking into the castle to steal some medicine, y’know. They know that we definitely won’t wait for too long if we are still alive.” His eyebrows furrowed a little. “Do they know that we are still alive?”

“They might,” Keith answered. He honestly didn’t know how the Galra communicated with the castle. If it was through magic they definitely knew, if not it was unlikely that any of the Galra he had fought against would be able to make their way back to the castle fast enough to alert them of their presence. In other words…

“We need a plan,” Lance stated. “And a fast one.” Keith nodded in agreement and Lance got to his legs. “Alright. So. We’ll have to sneak in, find out where they are kept, break them out and bring them somewhere safe. The beach is no longer an option.” Keith’s heart gave a small, uncomfortable tug. Lance had obviously grown attached to his house at the beach and so had he. It was home, in a sense.

“Pidge?” he suggested. Lance seemed to consider it, then shook his head.

“Too risky. We’ll be going there with so many people, there is no way to disguise our tracks and I won’t put her or her family into danger.” It made sense, Keith supposed. But other than that there really weren’t a lot of places to go to. 

“I could take you to my old house. Shiro’s house. The only problem is that it’s around two days away, _on foot_ , since we’ll have to take your entire family.” Keith had managed to run from the castle to the shack within a little under a day but he had been on his own, in his Galra form and full of adrenaline. There was simply no way they could get there this fast. Especially not if they would have to hide their tracks. 

“We… could steal horses,” Lance suggested, his brows furrowed in thought. He was still pacing and it kind of made Keith anxious but he wasn’t about to deny him this small comfort when he knew that Lance was already struggling with simply not breaking down. 

“We could. What about our tracks though?” The moment he voiced his concern a thought popped into his head. “Wait, you guys can use the horses, I’ll follow you in my Galra form. I can cover them up and catch up to you guys, no problem.”

“How will we find the way without you?” 

“I’ll show you on a map,” Keith dismissed. Lance still looked unhappy about it and he sighed. “Look. There isn’t really anywhere else we can go that doesn’t unnecessarily endanger someone. And we need to hide our tracks and I can do that.” A look at the sun had Keith cocking his head in thought. “The shack is around half a day away from here, I think. If we could get a map I could take you there: we would have a safe place to sleep for today and you would get to know the way from there to the castle tomorrow.”

Lance, now finally still, frowned hard at Keith. Then he sighed. “Okay. Okay, I don’t really see any other way to do this either. I just really don’t like all the uncertainties in the plan. What if they already know about your house? What if I’ll forget the way and get us lost in the forest? What if you-” Lance cut himself off and grimaced. “No, never mind. I’m not thinking about that.”

Keith knew what he had wanted to say anyway. _What if you won’t be able to catch up undetected? What if you die?_

“I’ll be fine,” Keith insisted. Lance sighed again and carded a hand through his hair. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you’re pretty good at this kinda stuff. And it’s not as if we had any other choice. But I really wish we had.”

It was no good. Lance was too honest, too open about his worries. Keith didn’t like it at all. If Lance had no problems with showing him these emotions he didn’t want to know how much more he kept under lock. 

“I’m not a fan of it either,” Keith admitted. He got to his feet and positioned himself in front of Lance, unsure of what to do now. He… he wanted to comfort him, hug him maybe but he wasn’t sure whether it would be welcome. They also had to get a map, the longer they stood here the later it would be until he could get Lance to sleep. 

Lance looked him in the eyes, a crooked smile playing on his lips. It didn’t reach his eyes and he was still too pale for Keith’s liking. He was surprised when Lance suddenly reached out and pushed his thumb against his forehead, directly in between his brows. “Will you ever stop frowning today?”

Keith blinked a little, then made an effort to smooth his expression out. He hadn’t even been aware that he was scowling again. Lance let out a small laugh and pressed a kiss to where his thumb had rested just moments earlier. “Much better.”

Alright, fuck it.

Keith brought his arms around him and hugged him tight. He could feel Lance stiffen in surprise, then cautiously returning the hug.

“We’ll get them back,” Keith promised. Lance’s hug got tighter and he could feel him relaxing into it.

“I hope so,” he whispered against his neck. 

“We will,” Keith repeated. He would make sure of that. Lance had done so much for him already, it was time to pay him back. 

After another few moments Keith loosened the hug. Lance didn’t seem to like it but they had to get a map. They also had more planning to do - Keith wouldn’t be able to carry Lance’s entire family up the wall and out of the castle. And they had to act soon, they couldn’t be sure what the Galra would to do Lance’s family if they didn’t arrive for negotiations within a reasonable timeframe. 

“Does your family have a map?” Keith asked as he made his way towards the broken door again. Lance followed closely behind.

“Yeah. Hang on, you have no idea on where to look.”  


“But you do? It’s been years since you’ve last been over, right?” Both Keith and Lance stopped in front of the door. Lance was looking at the ground, still refusing to take in the chaos and destruction that had once been his home. Keith furrowed his brows before he realized what he was doing and forced them apart again.

“You don’t have to come inside, you know.”

“I know,” Lance sighed, “but you really won’t know where to look.”  


“I doubt you would know it either.” Once again his comment went ignored. Keith saw how Lance drew in a deep breath and lifted his head to look at the kitchen. 

An expression of pure horror took over his face. The destruction and struggle that had taken place in here was evident and Keith wished Lance had never seen any of it.

“No, we’re not doing this,” he decided and tugged Lance away from the door. He followed without resistance, squeezing his eyes shut. Another panic attack?! Dread crawled Keith’s throat up as he let Lance’s arm go and grabbed his shoulders instead.

“Lance?”

“I’m fine.” A shuddering breath left him and his eyes opened again. He looked troubled but nowhere near as panicked as before. “I’m fine,” he insisted when he caught sight of Keith’s face. Keith wasn’t sure about that so he didn’t let go for another few moments until Lance looked rather annoyed. “I’m really fine now, can you _please_ let go? We still have to get a map.”

Reluctantly Keith let his arms fall away, his eyes still not leaving Lance’s face just yet. “You’re right. Where are we gonna find one?”

“The market place,” Lance said. He narrowed his eyes a little, then pointed right. “That way.”

Keith adapted his footsteps to Lance’s and kept pace with him. They weren’t holding hands but they were walking close enough that their shoulders brushed against each other occasionally. “Do you even have any money?”

Lance grinned strainedly and bumped against his side. “Nope. But if we’re going to steal horses it can’t hurt to get some experience first, right?”

Keith frowned and cocked his head a little. “What are you implying?”

“I say we steal the map.” Lance grinned, then poked against Keith’s side. “Oh come on, don’t look at me like that! We’re going to steal _horses!_ A map is nothing, I doubt that whoever we take it from will even miss it all that much.”

Keith snorted and swatted at Lance’s arm. “Right. Whatever you say.” 

“Race you there!”

“What?! Lance, I don’t know where- what are you-” But Lance already took off, throwing a sly grin over his shoulder. He was still pale and Keith could see that there were still dark thoughts swirling around his head, but he was grinning earnestly for now. 

“You won’t beat me in your human form, loser!”

Lance was trying to get away from the situation, if only for a moment. And, frankly, Keith wasn’t about to deny him that. He could need a break too.

“Fuck you, you know you still don’t stand a chance!” he called back and made to catch up.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ART FOR THIS CHAPTER! !!!!! [Here we have that scene](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/153007439068/so-okay-i-dont-usually-do-art-but-sometimes-i) where the Galra soldier stared at Keith in surprise when he turned human again. [And now it's colored too!!](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/153209351253/here-it-is-colored-version-of-this-a-scene-of) Go visit [the artist's tumblr](http://kurosakiami01.tumblr.com/), the artist is /super/ nice, you won't regret it <33
> 
> If you are curious about how far everyone's houses are away from each other, check out [this post](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/post/153385566418/the-distances-between-everyones-houses-in-case).
> 
> Uh, then - next chapter is gonna be the last one, chapter 12 will be the epilogue!! :) Both of them are really long though, so brace yourselves.


	11. Less than ideal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance go on their mission to rescue Lance's family, even if it doesn't exactly go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JESUS THIS IS A LONG CHAPTER I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE JUST TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME--
> 
> Also, for everyone that was curious about how the Galra found Hunk & Lance's family, here's how it went: at first the Galra only send two people out to find them. They arrived at the beach just in time to see Hunk leave and one of them decided to follow him while the other one tried to figure out where the fuck he came from (since the house is invisible, Hunk practically appeared out of nowhere). Then Keith and Lance excited the house and the second Galra obviously followed them since one of them was Keith. ~~yeah they got stalked on their date talk about creepy~~.  
>  That’s how the Galra completely missed out on Shiro, Pidge and Matt. The two Galra then returned to the castle to report what they found and came back with a bigger group of people - by then Shiro had already moved out. They figured out where exactly the house was while Keith and Lance were out at the library (and now the conversation that they overheard at the castle should make sense :P) and then waited for them to separate. So yeah, they got stalked AGAIN on their glowy water date lmao

“What’s the plan again?” Lance asked. Keith breathed out an annoyed groan. 

“We’ve been over the plan for at least four ti-”

“Yeah, I know and I remember. But I also remember you trying to charge at that witch last time we were here and I’m not having a repeat of that.” For someone that didn’t actually like violence Keith sure resorted to it quite often. _“Especially_ not if we’ll be visible this time.”

Keith frowned at him and patted the horse closest to him. “I wasn’t-” Lance raised his eyebrows, daring him to continue. He might have been halfway to the land of dreams when it happened but he still remembered it as clear as day. Keith seemed to realize that he couldn’t win this argument and huffed a little.

“Fine. We’ll go over the plan _again_. You’ll disguise us while we’re climbing over the wall and then let go of the spell to save your magic. We’ll search for the prison cells, break them out, then you’ll use the light affinities of your sisters to camouflage us all. We’ll leave through the front gates but we’ll have to be quick.”

“And quiet,” Lance added anxiously. Keith nodded.

“And quiet. And then we’ll come here, get all of you on the horses and I’ll stay behind to get rid of the tracks.” 

Keith let go of the horse and Lance immediately latched onto his hand. “But you’ll catch up.” For a moment Keith seemed surprised, then he smiled crookedly. 

“I will. I can’t leave an entire family in your incompetent hands, after all.”

Lance bristled and let go of him. Asshole. He crossed his arms.

“They are _my_ family. They love me and I’m more than capable of taking care of them,” he claimed. His new posture had the added bonus of hiding the shaking of his hands, he didn’t want Keith to know exactly how close he was to breaking down again. Everything had been going so smoothly, they had managed to steal the horses, he wasn't about to ruin that.

“Take care of them in the forest? With no ocean to get easy food from?” Keith raised an eyebrow and shot him a smirk. “Somehow I really doubt that.”

“Rude much?!”  


“It’s true though, you can’t deny it.”

“Very rude, that’s it, I’m breaking up with you. A handsome man as myself could do much better,” Lance joked. He tried to keep his voice even and light but Keith’s furrowed brows told him that it wasn’t really working. Damn it.

“You- hey, everything’s gonna be okay, yeah?” Keith’s hands settled on his still crossed arms, applying just the right amount of pressure to ground Lance. For all that he insisted that he was bad at emotional stuff, he sure knew how to calm him down. Lance let out a sigh and gave up on hiding his nerves.

“I know. I know and I’m really trying to believe that but- they are my family, Keith-”

Keith frowned even harder, then pulled Lance into an awkward hug. Lance let out a breathy laugh, maybe he had been too quick to judge. Keith was awful at this - and yet he helped. He settled his arms around him and buried his face in his hair. It smelled like forest and sweat but also _Keith_ and Lance found that he somehow didn’t mind the sweat this time. He also really liked this new height. Keith’s soft cheek was pressing against his jaw and he found comfort in it.

“We’ll get them out. Don’t worry, they can’t be that hard to find - we already know half of the castle’s layout and haven’t gotten across any cells. They have to be somewhere in the other half.”

If Lance was completely honest, the only one that knew about the castle’s layout was Keith. He couldn’t remember any of the turns and corners they took when they went to the library. Then another thought crossed his head and he unwillingly let out a laugh. “I bet they keep their prisoners underground. They have to live up to the evil guys trope.”

Keith laughed along, his right hand coming up between Lance’s shoulder blades. Lance nuzzled his head against him. Keith was trying so hard to help him… god, he loved him. So much. Too much. Way too much to be healthy.

“It’s worth a shot. The basement is way harder to escape from, after all. We’ll try going there first.”

Lance nodded, breathing in deeply one last time and then pushed himself away from Keith. They had to get going now, every minute they stayed here was a minute longer for his family in prison. Keith smiled encouragingly and after a few tense seconds Lance couldn’t help but laugh at his expression.

“What?”

“You look as if you’re desperately trying to imitate Shiro. Do me a favor and never make that face again.”

“I wasn’t- I was just trying to be _helpful_ ,” Keith frowned. Lance grinned and took his hand, slowly making his way towards to the castle. One of the horses nickered and kicked some dirt up but they didn’t stop. 

“And I’m not saying you weren’t, I’m just saying that you shouldn’t try advanced Shiro moves until you’ve gotten at least two hundred percent better at this. Your hug? Awesome. Or well, decent enough. That smile? Nuuh, we’ll have to work on that.”

“You’re being an ass,” Keith told him. Lance grinned and shrugged. He knew he was, of course he did, but it was the only way he could stop himself from thinking about all the things that could go wrong on this mission. He wasn’t about to stop acting like this any time soon.

“You know you love it.”  


“Actually I could make do without this part of you,” Keith said evenly. Lance forced a laugh and squeezed his hand a little tighter. Keith squeezed back immediately. 

“Can’t help you with that, I’m not going to change who I am just to make you more comfortable. That’s not how romance works, my friend. Besides it’s way too much fun to rile you up.” Keith shoved him a little but it wasn’t enough to break their rhythm. 

“I don’t know why I’m putting up with you.”

“I already told you, you love me,” Lance drawled. He snickered at Keith’s annoyed sigh. 

“If you call being two seconds away from shoving you face first into the dirt then yes, I love you,” Keith grumbled.

“Wow, _Keith_ , I never knew you could be such a romantic! You wooed my heart, my soul ascended to heaven, now there is no saving me! All my breath just left my body, how will I ever recover from this?”

“Does that mean you’ll shut up now?” Keith’s hopeful tone had Lance cracking up again. He could feel his nerves calming down to an irregular flutter and bumped against his shoulder. How did Keith manage to do that?

“You are way too rude to be my boyfriend, you know?”

“I wasn’t the one that started with the insults,” Keith reminded him. Lance was unperturbed. 

“I wasn’t insulting you! I was just stating facts.”  


“Oh my god, shut up.”

“What, have you given up on finding a good retort? You know I’m right, just admi-”

“Lance! Shut up. Now.” Keith’s voice had gone from exasperated to serious and Lance could feel his nerves skyrocketing again. Did something happen? He closed his mouth immediately and swallowed, focusing on his surroundings and trying to make out whether there was anything to be concerned about.

There was. He could hear footsteps coming closer and unconsciously inched closer to Keith. A hiss of protest and shaking of his hand had Lance realize that he was pretty much crushing Keith’s fingers in his grip. Guiltily he loosened it, only for Keith to draw away completely. He turned towards him, trying not to let his panic show.

Keith wasn’t paying attention to him, he had closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Suddenly he began growing and and dark splotches appeared on his skin. Lance had only seen this happen twice but he knew it meant that Keith was changing into his Galran form. As soon as he was finished, Keith carefully grabbed his hand again, keeping his claws away from his skin.

Lance wanted them to properly hold hands again. He needed the comfort of it. He felt as if was he was dying, his heartbeat was unnaturally fast and senses went into overdrive. Was his breathing always that loud? Oh god, what if the Galra could hear it?

Keith had his head and ears turned towards the approaching footsteps. Lance tried to imitate his calm and attentive posture but it was hard to do so when his thoughts constantly flew into directions they really shouldn’t go to. What if they got discovered? Would he have to kill the Galra? Fuck, would he even be able to kill the Galra?! He didn’t have more than a small bottle of water on him. What if they got captured instead? Would the Galra kill Lance’s family if they found out who he was? 

Without a warning, Lance felt a harsh tug on his hand. Keith was dragging him towards the castle, completely ignoring the people coming towards them. Lance didn’t dare to ask what he was doing, too scared of making too much noise and getting discovered. He would trust Keith of this, he hadn’t let him down so far. He was just thankful that it was night already, the darkness should help them merge with the background at least a little.

Then again, if these were Galra they were dealing with, then the brightness of their environment didn’t matter much. These fuckers had night vision.

Lance didn’t know how long he was following Keith in silence. It felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. They were pretty close to the castle already… it really couldn’t have taken them that long. Lance just hoped that whomever these footsteps belonged to didn’t discover the horses.

“Okay, we’re clear now,” Keith whispered and let go of his hand. Lance breathed out a sigh of relief and placed an arm over his eyes.

“Oh my god, what was that?” he wheezed. “You just gave me a heart attack. Why is there someone out in the forest in the middle of the night?”

“They were Galran soldiers,” Keith said. Lance lowered his arm again to look at him. He was standing with his arms crossed, looking mildly uncomfortable. Definitely not a good sign.

“Keith?”

“It’s just- they seemed like a patrol. The Galra never patrol outside of the castle, they are confident that no one is able to enter undetected.”

Lance grimaced. “Yeah well, we kind of proved them wrong already. They probably noticed that one of their books on magic was gone… and they have my family, so of course-” Lance cut himself off and pressed his lips together. Of course they would put two and two together and realize that Lance was the only one that could have stolen the book. And they probably knew that he would try to free his family so it made sense to post patrols outside of the castle. But if security outside was already this high…

Fuck. They couldn’t do this. They would need the light magic to move in there but if he used his magic now he wouldn’t be strong enough to disguise his family later-

Keith knocked against his head and Lance shot him an incredulous look. “Snap out of it,” Keith ordered. Lance huffed.

“I wasn’t thinking anything.”

“Just how dumb to you think I am?” Keith glared at him and Lance forced a grin.

“Well, if you’re asking-”

“Never mind. Don’t do anything stupid now. We’re sticking to the plan, it’ll work out somehow.”

Lance froze and blinked at Keith. He couldn’t believe how confident he sounded. Was he serious? What was he thinking?! Had he not reached the same conclusion as Lance?

“I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice here-” Lance began but got cut off by Keith.

“It’ll be fine. We thought this through and you were the one that said we needed to stick to the plan no matter what happens.”

“I did _not_ say that,” Lance spit out indignantly. “I said that we should try to stick to the plan even if things get harsh. This is not harsh though, this is a completely new situation. We will never be able to go through there undetected without my magic!”

Keith frowned and looked at the ground. “It’ll be more difficult than before but we’ll manage. We can’t afford to make you use light magic, you might tire yourself out before we even reach your family. And even if you didn’t, there is no way you can cover all of them if you used any of your weaker magics before that. We are already cutting it close as it is.”

“If we don’t use my magic we won’t get anywhere at all! We’ll be dead within moments of crossing the wall!” Lance spread his arms to make Keith realize how ridiculous he was being. Why did he always have to be so stubborn? Either he didn’t stick to a plan at all or refused to accept anything _but_ the fucking plan. None of them were an option in a complicated rescue mission. They had to be _adaptable_.

Keith groaned, obviously upset with the situation. Well, he wasn’t the only one.

“Fine. Then what do you suggest we do?”

Well. He hadn’t really thought that far yet.

“I say we use my magic. Maybe we’re lucky and find them fast, then I’ll be able again to disguise them all after a few hours.” It definitely wasn’t one of his best plans but it was definitely better than the one they had now.

Keith didn’t seem to agree with him on that. “That’s way too risky. Do you realize how huge the castle is? There is no way we can just wing it and hope for the best.” 

Lance couldn’t help but let out a snort. “You’re one to talk. That’s exactly what you are suggesting, you know. Just without the protection of my light magic.”

Silence fell over the two of them as they pondered their options. No, they couldn’t just go in without a disguise. That was suicide and even Keith should have realized that by now. But holding two light spells up for an undetermined amount of time before they even reached his family was a bad idea too. 

“Damn! Is there a way we could find out where the prison cells are located? Do the Galra keep maps of the castle’s layout or something?” Lance asked frustratedly. Keith frowned harder, deep in thought until he suddenly let out a tiny noise of surprise. He blinked owlishly as if he had had a life-changing revelation. “What? Is there?!”

“No, no there isn’t - but the _Galra_ know their castle,” Keith blurted out. Slowly but surely understanding dawned on Lance.

“You- you want to-”

“Yeah! You’ll disguise us and we search for a Galra that seems to know where he is going.”

…it was a risky plan. Sure, the Galra wouldn’t see them coming so he should be easy enough to overwhelm, but what if he led them right into a trap? Or what if he called for help? Lance could glue his mouth shut with the little water he had but the Galra surely had other ways to contact his evil friends.

Not that they had much of another choice. 

“Alright. Alright, okay, we can work with that. I’ll disguise us, then we search for a high-ranking Galra guy - preferably one who’s walking around alone - and we get him to lead us to my family.” Lance quieted for a moment, forcing his nerves aside, then shot a half-hearted grin at Keith. “I sure hope you kept your intimidation techniques polished because we’re gonna need them.” 

Keith rolled his eyes and turned his back towards Lance, extending his arms to the side. An unspoken invitation to get onto his back. Lance did so without without fuss and began to cast the spell to make them invisible. 

Fuck. This was it, they were really going to do this.

They were getting his family back.

He squeezed his eyes together, _hard_ , burying his head into Keith’s hair. He needed to stop worrying so much. His thoughts were going crazy and he couldn’t calm down. It distracted him and he couldn’t _afford_ to be distracted! Not on this mission and especially not while casting a light spell. Too much depended on that. He had to start over.

“I honestly don’t know what intimidation techniques you are talking about but I brought my knife,” Keith told him. Lance let out a huff of laughter and hugged him a little tighter. Focusing on Keith was good. Safe. He could calm down like this. God, he loved this idiot so much.

“Honestly, I’m more scared of your mini-dagger claws than your knife but whatever suits your taste. As long as you give them your default death glare they will be too scared to provide resistance.”

“I _do not_ have a default death glare,” Keith complained. Lance grinned and flicked his left hand against fluffy ears - they twitched. Oh my god, that was adorable. He poked their base and watched them twitch again. Amazing, how had he not done this before?

“Sure you do. For example, I know you’re using it right no-”

_“Stop touching my ears or I’m gonna drop you!”_

There was honest indignation in Keith’s voice and Lance was delighted. He would so totally do this more often once they were out of here.

If they came back out of there.

All his good mood gone, he gulped and let his hand fall away. He brought it carefully against Keith’s neck, closing his eyes and starting the light spell again. The time for jokes was over, they were just dragging things out at this point. He had to protect them, protect Keith. And he had to get his family back.

Just when he had finished the spell Keith piped up again. “Ready?”  


“Yeah. Quiet from now on,” Lance reminded him just as much as himself. He could feel a wave of exhaustion rolling over him and prayed that they would find a Galra fast, he wasn’t sure how long he could keep this up. Sure, he didn’t have to worry about camouflaging his house anymore - something that Keith had pointed out just last night - but he had just casted two new light spells without any help of other people’s affinities. It was wearing him down already.

Keith began moving and Lance focused on snuggling against him. Everything was fine still, he was just a little tired. The light spells would definitely last for a few hours at least. Hopefully they would find his family in way less time than that and could get them out of there as fast as possible. Everything was fine and everything would be fine. He was already preserving energy by just letting Keith carry him, bless his stupid and innocent soul. 

Keith. Lance wasn’t sure how he could ever thank him for helping him out with this. He was risking his life for him and Lance hadn’t even helped with breaking his curse. Was Keith even aware of how amazing he was?

They reached the wall and Keith shifted his arms a little. Lance immediately caught on and wrapped his legs around his waist, knowing that Keith needed both of his hands to climb the stone. After living with him for more than two months, Lance was more or less used to Keith’s Galra strength - still, it never failed to impress him.

Once they were close to the top, they had to stop as a patrol crossed over their heads. It had been the second one already, they came by much more frequently than usual. Lance had been right, the Galra really expected them to come and break his family out. He didn’t doubt that things would look similar on the inside of the castle.

And he was right.

A few moments later they had crossed the wall and were carefully making their way inside. The Galra usually walked around in patrols of two, something that both Keith and Lance didn’t want to risk attacking. However, they also didn’t want to waste too much time simply waiting for an appropriate victim to cross their path and with a shared look they agreed to slowly make their way towards the center of the castle. Their goal: the stairwell leading underground. Maybe they would come across a suitable Galra on the way.

Since the moment his feet had touched the ground again, Lance had felt like dying. Keith was a lot calmer and more collected than he had been on their last mission but it only served to put Lance more on edge. He didn’t have to be the responsible one anymore, Keith now took that role. Actually Keith did everything! Why did Lance even accompany him?!

_Not now_ , he chided himself. Out of all the times his self-doubts had to resurface, now was arguably the worst moment. Keith needed him, without him he would have been discovered already. That wasn’t even up to debate. His family also won’t be able to get out of here without his magic. He just had to follow Keith and trust in their new, half-assed plan. 

Lance didn’t notice that his hands were trembling until Keith suddenly came to a halt in front of him and pressed a steady hand against his chest. Ignoring the adrenaline soaring through his body, Lance looked at where Keith was pointing.

A Galra.

A single Galra, not really fancy clothes, but sure as hell purposeful strides. A Galra that knew where he was going. And he was alone.

It was now or never.

Lance tugged at Keith’s sleeve to get his attention and gestured at his boyfriend. Keith cocked his head, trying to figure out what Lance was telling him. Lance gesticulated some more. The only reaction he got from Keith was a deadly confused look. He suppressed a groan, massaging his temples instead. Come on Keith, it wasn’t that hard! _Use your stupid brain for once!_

But no matter what Lance did, Keith didn’t seem to understand his signs. He pressed his lips together, keeping an eye on the leaving figure of the Galra. They had to hurry! Not about to waste any more time on Keith’s inability to comprehend basic sign meanings, he just shoved him in towards the Galra. Keith hadn’t seen this coming and stumbled a few times, barely catching himself in time to avoid crashing against the wall.

Fuck. _Fuckfuckfuck_. Lance, high on adrenaline and strung with tension, had shoved him too hard. There was no way the Galra had missed Keith’s footsteps.

Confirming Lance’s fears, the Galra froze dead in his tracks. “Hello? Is someone there?”

Lance saw Keith readying himself to pounce at the guy, knife unsheathed and between his claws. Careful to not make any noise with his clothes, Lance grabbed the tiny bottle of water against his hip.

“…anyone? …weird. I could have sworn there was a-” The Galra never managed to finish his sentence, Keith sprinted full speed and jumped at him. Within seconds the Galra was on the ground, face pressed onto cold stone and one arm twisted behind his back. Lance scrambled to open the water bottle as fast as possible, not letting the Galra make any noise past his initial shout of surprise.

Alright. Alright, they now had a Galra. A very freaked out Galra, if his facial expression was anything to go by. After all, it wasn’t everyday that thin air attacked you and sealed your mouth shut.

“Listen up now,” Keith hissed in a low voice as Lance came closer. “You are going to lead me to where you keep the prisoners. No resisting, no weird moves or you won’t survive this.” As if to make his point clear, Lance saw Keith pulling at the Galra’s arm a little. His face contorted into an expression of pain but Lance had shockingly little compassion left for the guy.

They had captured his family. _Innocents_. 

“Answer me,” Keith demanded. Lance raised an eyebrow, electing not to point out that the Galra’s mouth was sealed shut. Keith’s words had implied that he was alone, he was keeping their numbers a secret, which was actually quite a smart thing to do. Lance just hoped that he wouldn’t accidentally kill the guy when he didn’t respond.

The Galra attempted to open his mouth, then nodded frantically when he realized it wasn’t possible. Neither Lance nor Keith cracked a smile at that. He was scared? Good. Now he would have no choice but to lead him to his family.

“I’m going to let you get up now,” Keith spoke in a low voice. “You still won’t be able to make a sound. You will lead me towards the prisoner cells that keeps the human magician’s family. If you try to do anything stupid just remember that I’m always right behind you. And even if I’m not-” Keith placed his knife against the Galra’s throat, the flat side pressing against his pulse, “just remember that I carry something that I can throw. You have no choice but to do as I say. Are we clear?”

Once again, the Galra nodded. It was a lot more careful this time, he obviously didn’t want to cut himself on the knife. Apart from that he seemed significantly less shocked than before though. Well, Keith had practically admitted that he was the human magician, coming to his family’s rescue. That kind of explained the whole invisible-attack thing, so it wasn’t surprising that the Galra seemed less bothered now.

Lance had to admit he was impressed though. Keith certainly hadn’t forgotten about his intimidation techniques. The Galra seemed to agree on that, he led them silently through hallways, never attempting to get into contact with the soldiers they passed. He guided them down a giant stairwell, then a smaller one. Then there were _lots_ of tiny hallways that left Lance’s head spinning - he would never, _ever_ find his way out of here again, would he?! - before finally coming to a halt in front of an iron door.

An actual iron door. As if prisoners held by the Galra could even escape from a bunch of ropes in the middle of the open courtyard.

They were going to get his family back.

Lance almost felt sick in anticipation.

Then the Galra turned around and stared at the other end of the hallway, making a swiping motion at his mouth. What was he- oh. He wanted to get rid of the speaking ban. Should they risk it? Lance shot Keith a questioning look but Keith just frowned back and shrugged. For a moment Lance contemplated just leaving the guy like this but what could he do? They were quite far away from any other soldiers. In fact Lance didn’t even remember the last hallway in which they had crossed a patrol… the Galra might have something useful to say. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t just renew the spell if he didn’t. 

Deciding to give him the benefit of doubt, Lance called the water back. The reaction was immediate: the Galra breathed in deeply and closed his eyes. Fuck, was he going to scream?!

But he didn’t, he just evenly breathed out again. And in, and out. Lance frowned.

“I didn’t lift your spell just to let you breathe, you know. Speak,” Keith ordered. Lance nodded in support, even if the Galra couldn’t see it.

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to waste your time,” the Galra replied. Lance’s eyebrows shot up and he exchanged a look with Keith. Whatever he had expected, it certainly wasn’t that. Hey, at least the surprise had helped him settle his nerves somewhat - only that they were back the moment he had thought it. Damn it. 

“Then say what you have to say,” Keith huffed. Lance inched a little towards him, this entire situation played out so differently from what he had thought that he had troubles processing it. At least Keith didn’t seem to mind him crowding his personal space.

“…you’re the halfbreed, right? Is the magician here with you?”

Keith let out a noise of surprise and Lance automatically spread his water defensively. How the fuck did he-

“My bad. Maybe I shouldn’t have started like that,” the Galra said, raising his arms as if to calm them down. He was still looking to the other end of the hallway, still had no idea where they were. The thought offered a tiny bit of comfort to Lance.

“Why would you say that?” Keith asked through clenched teeth. Oh no. Was he angry? Lance focused his attention on him, lightly putting his hand against the small of his back. It wouldn’t do them any good if Keith attacked the guy now, they still didn’t have any answers. Besides he wasn’t so sure anymore that his family really was behind that door…

“We - _the Galra_ know that you two are friends. You have claws and a very distinctly not human strength but you are invisible and want to know where the magician’s family is located. It wasn’t a hard guess to make,” the Galra stated calmly. Lance tried to swallow against the sudden tightness in his throat. This didn’t sit well with him. Why couldn’t anything go as planned today?

“…whether he is here with me or not isn’t relevant.” Keith reached out for Lance’s arm, he felt the back of his hand brush against his skin as if he was reassuring himself that Lance hadn’t left yet. “I told you that I would kill you if you did any stupid tricks. Where is Lan- where is the magician’s family?”

The Galra finally lowered his arms and sighed. “I promise I will lead you to them. Soon. I just have-”

“ _Soon_ isn’t soon enough,” Keith hissed. Lance could feel him tense beside him and immediately threw himself against his back.

“Keith, _no_ ,” Lance said firmly. He squeezed around his waist to keep him in place, knowing that if Keith really wanted to he could free himself in a heartbeat. But hell, he wasn’t going to make this easy for him. That guy was the only chance to reach his family!

“What the- you were supposed to stay quiet!”

“And I didn’t lift he guy’s spell just to have you kill him! Or, well, whatever you were about to do to him anyway. He _knows_ where my family is! Can you guarantee that the next Galra we come across will know too?”

Keith froze, then relaxed his stance. Slowly Lance let go of him again, still a little wary of Keith’s temper. 

“We don’t have time for this. If he is just going to waste our time - and your magic - we should-”

“I’m not taking any chances here. With our luck the next lone Galra we come across will be the witch,” Lance interrupted bitterly. Keith still seemed to be caught in whatever internal battle he was fighting so Lance turned towards the Galra. 

“Alright. I have just one question and answer me honestly - if you don’t, I won’t stop Keith from impaling you next time. Got that?” A nod. Good. “Assumed that we listen to whatever you have to tell us, will you take us to my family?”

To Lance’s surprise the Galra nodded immediately, not a trace of doubt on his face. “You have my word.” 

Right. Right. He had the Galra’s word that he would take them to his family… now what? Could they even trust a Galra’s word?

“Then talk,” Keith half-spoke, half-growled. Lance was kind of glad that he didn’t have to be on the receiving end of that threatening tone. The Galra didn’t seem intimidated at all, he simply straightened himself out and took another deep breath.

“My name is Thace and I am one of the Galra that don’t agree with the current regime of this country. Zarkon has never been a fair and just emperor but these last few years he pushed it to new extremes. We were hardly ever commanded to kill halfbreeds before.”

Before? Halfbreeds, _plural?!_

“Are you telling me there are others?!” Keith asked. To everyone else it might have sounded as if he was angry but Lance could hear the confusion and suppressed hope in his voice. Keith had suffered so much, constantly struggling with the belief that he was different from everyone else, thinking that he was the only ‘monster’ here but now-

“Not anymore,” the Galra answered bitterly. Well, there goes that hope. “There haven’t been any for half a century before you and two others came along. My mother told me that we used to ignore them, let them live their life and pretend they didn’t exist since they weren’t too different from other humans - but Zarkon has been going insane lately. He is too old, his life should have been over a long time ago.”

A queasy feeling spread through Lance’s stomach. “What do you mean by that?” He had thought that Galra just lived long. Very long, in Zarkon’s case. Thousands of years was an extremely long time… 

But what if it _wasn’t_ natural?

“The witch has been keeping him alive with magic. Magic that isn’t hers, that never should have been hers to begin with. No one should live that long, especially not someone like Zarkon.” Silence filled the hallway once Thace finished speaking. Lance could feel his head trying to sort through all the new information. What did he mean with ‘magic that isn’t hers’? If the magic didn’t belong to the witch she wouldn’t have been able to use it! Much less keep Zarkon alive, that- that shouldn’t even be possible, magic didn’t work that way.

“Why should we believe you? And why does that matter to us?” Keith asked in a clipped tone. Lance put his thoughts aside for later and focused on the Galra again. Keith was right, this was wasting their time.

Thace breathed out and forced a grim smile. “As I told you, I don’t agree with Zarkon’s regime. I contacted the resistance and gained their approval - it was them that warned me that the two of you would most likely show up to free Lance’s family.”

Lance froze, his heartbeat picked up again. The Galra- the Galra knew his name. Had Keith said anything? No, he hadn’t, neither of them had mentioned any names. Or had they? This was not good, not good at all-

Keith was stiffening next to him and Lance grabbed his arm tightly. Both of them were strung tight but neither of them made any attempt to make Thace stop speaking.

“And you - Keith, right?” Lance’s grip tightened and he could feel his fingernails digging into Keith’s flesh. He immediately loosened his hand again but Keith didn’t even notice. His eyes were wide and trained on the Galra, just as desperate to make sense out of everything as Lance was.

“Keith. I know about your curse-”

“How do you know my name? Lance’s name?” Keith was so high on tension that it seeped through his voice, almost making it sound strangled. Lance worried about him but was too scared of Thace’s answer to do anything about it.

“Shirogane told me. He also told me that you wouldn’t be inclined to listen to me unless I could prove you that I am serious about opposing Zarkon. I am - and I will show you. Today I will take the magic from the Galra and your curse will be lifted.”

From one moment to the next, Keith wasn’t standing next to him anymore. Lance stumbled forward, trying to grab his shirt but missed. Keith was too fast for him.

“Keith- Keith, wait!”

Keith didn’t listen, he threw himself against the Galra and closed his hands around his neck. 

_“Keith!”_

_“What did you do to Shiro?!”_

Thace made a choking noise and Lance flung his water forward, forcefully loosening Keith’s grip on the Galra’s neck. Keith whipped around, face twisted into an expression of shock and betrayal that Lance would never be able forget.

“What are you doing?! This guy did something to Shiro! He- fuck, Shiro was with Pidge, what if he hurt her too?!”

Cold fear clashed over Lance but he still didn’t let go of Keith’s hands. Keith might strangle the Galra and then they would _never_ know what happened to them.

“Please, calm yourself. I didn’t hurt any of your friends. I would tell you about their work as proof but according to them they never told you about the resistance. I am serious though. Nothing happened to them, they should be close to the castle by now.”

_“Why would they come to the castle?!”_ Keith hissed. Lance could feel his legs getting weaker, this wasn’t supposed to happen. His family and Hunk were in danger. And now Shiro and Pidge, too? Oh god, if they were here, then Matt was right beside them. Everyone that Lance cared about was targeted by the Galra… it was his worst nightmare becoming reality. 

“Your friends are members of the organized resistance movement against the Galra. Around a week ago I finally managed to contact them and explain everything about our magic… magic that isn’t ours. You stole a book from the library, so you have heard about the Balmeran crystal, right?”

“Just _answer my question_ ,” Keith commanded angrily. His hands began to apply more pressure against Lance’s water and he gasped as he pushed back. If he let go now Keith would _actually_ kill Thace… 

Maybe Lance should just let him do it. 

But no, only the Galra knew about Shiro and Pidge. They would free his family, then take him with them and force him to lead them to Pidge. He couldn’t afford to let him die here.

“Shirogane and the Holt family had been planning to take over the castle for a long time now, but the threat of the Galra’s strength and magic held them back. When they learned that there was an unexpectedly easy way to counter the magic, they wanted to make their move as fast as possible, they wanted to attack three days from now. You two coming here forced them to rush but it appears that you managed to arrive just in time.”

“Just in time for what?” Lance asked wearily. This was a load of shit and he didn’t know what to make of the situation. What did the Galra even want from them? Why make them listen to all of this when he knew that the only thing it would do was to get him killed?

“You are not making any sense,” Keith growled. 

“I am speaking the truth. Calm down and listen to me for a secon-”

“Don’t order me around,” Keith spit out. Lance let out a pained laugh, this was insane. How could their plan go this horrendously wrong? God, shit, he had told Pidge to stay where she was, was it _his_ fault that she was in danger now?

“I am sorry, that wasn’t my intention. It might be easier if I just show you…” Thace lifted an arm and Keith immediately slammed it against the door with his elbow. But the Galra just showed them a thin-lipped smile and carefully knocked against the iron.

“Behind this door you will find two people sleeping. They are the Altean princess and her consultant, the ones that keep our magic alive. Without them, the Balmeran crystal would die and without the crystal none of us are able to use any magic. Our bodies are stronger and faster than anyone else's, we were not supposed to have any in the first place.”

“So what, you want us to go in there and kill two people we’ve never seen before?” Lance suppressed a hysterical laugh. He could feel tears burning in the corners of his eyes, this was getting too much. He had already been on edge because his family was in danger, but now he had Pidge, Matt and Shiro to additionally worry about. And some Galra guy wanted him to murder innocent people in their sleep? This wasn’t happening. 

“On the contrary,” Thace spoke, pulling Lance out of his thoughts. “I want you to go in there and wake them up. It’s a spell that keeps them asleep but touching them will be enough to make them rise. We will take them to the crystal and give the magic back to its rightful owners. And that’s when the resistance will attack the castle.”

Lance was about to punch him, smash his face against the door and scream at him. He didn’t care. He didn’t _care_ anymore. There was no resistance. What the fuck were Alteans?! He just wanted to get his family back and bring them to safety before searching for his friends.

Keith had gotten surprisingly calm though.

“Are you telling me that you have known how to take the Galra’s magic away all this time but you’ve never done anything? And now you suddenly want us to help you with that?”

“I couldn’t do anything earlier. Even if I had managed to get the magic back, we would have just gotten captured again and nothing would have changed. Now, however, we have a real chance. Now we have lots of people, humans, that are ready to change this situation for good. And they are outside, just waiting for the signal to attack. Including your friends.”

No. No way, there was just no way that was the truth. Lance refused to believe it, there were just too many fishy things about this story. First and foremost being, why should a _Galra_ protest against the regime that granted him a comfortable life?

“I don’t believe you,” Keith stated. Lance made a noise of agreement and stopped himself from reaching out for him. They could cuddle later, now wasn’t the time to comfort himself. “Why would you even want to help us?”

Thace’s answer was so unexpected that both Keith and Lance froze up, not knowing how to respond to it.

“I knew your father.”

Silence enclosed the three of them, then Lance regained his voice. Keith was obviously still in shock and he slowly pressed a hand against his shoulder. He stiffened at first but then Lance could feel some of his tension drain from him.

“You _‘knew’?”_ Lance asked carefully. Thace turned his head towards him, but his eyes went right through him.

“He is dead now. They killed him as soon as they found out that he had loved a human, that he had had a child with her.” Another beat of silence. “He was my best friend,” the Galra whispered, pain still fresh in his voice.

Keith slowly pulled back from Thace. Lance could feel him trembling and pressed himself closer so that parts of their bodies were lined up. He couldn’t say that he completely trusted the Galra but something about his tone seemed so sincere that Lance _wanted_ to believe him. It made him dizzy. 

“You knew my… my mother never told me anything about him,” Keith said in a small voice. His shoulders visibly dropped and Lance could feel his heart give a painful squeeze. He didn’t know much about Keith’s life before he moved in with Shiro but he remembered how emotional Keith had been that day at the beach. He had cared a lot for his mother, he still did, even if she was dead now.

“He was… a good man. A little rash sometimes. He tended to joke around a lot and could talk about your mother for days if no one shut him up. Everyone knew about her, even if almost no one knew that she was a human.”

Keith didn’t reply but his trembling resided. Lance could feel him breathing in deeply and briefly nuzzled his head against his shoulder. Keith’s hand brushed against his arm, following it down towards his hand and carefully closing around it. 

“Alright. I’m still- I cannot say that I trust you completely,” Keith said evenly. Lance pressed a kiss against his shoulder to show his support. Now that he was calm again, he had faith that Keith would do the right thing. Also leaning against him was nice. “But we will give it a try. You open the door and Lance and I will wake the two people inside. I’ll warn you though - Lance will secure you to the door. If this is a trick to harm us in any way, you will not be able to escape.”

Thace nodded, then slowly began to turn his back towards them. Keith let him and Lance stayed propped up against him, calling his water back. It only made sense to glue Thace to the door, he might even have enough water to additionally cover his mouth if he spread it thin. That way he couldn’t scream for any reinforcements. 

As soon as the doors began moving, Keith dragged him to the side. Confused and with a wave of dizziness Lance followed suit. What were they doing? Weren’t they supposed to go in there? 

Wait. Dizziness? 

_Fuck_.

The doors opened slowly and Lance shook his head to regain focus. It was too early to get exhausted already. Sure, emotional strain lessened his ability to keep up spells but he needed his magic. As far as he knew, they weren’t even close to his family yet.

Then the doors were all the way open and an eerie turquoise light fell on the floor before them.

“Alright. Follow me, they are right here.”

Keith immediately reached out for Thace, slamming him against the door. “Oh no, you don’t. I told you already, didn’t I?” The Galra blinked, but then sighed and nodded. “Lance,” Keith called.

Lance gritted his teeth and made his way over to them. At least the amount of water magic he had to use was ridiculously small, it wouldn’t affect him any further.

“…Lance? Are you okay?” Keith whispered. Thace’s ears moved towards the sound but he didn’t gave any other inclination that he had heard them. Lance grimaced. Damn, and he had tried to be discreet about it. 

“I’m fine. It’s just… we have to hurry,” Lance answered in a low voice. Keith’s face adopted an expression of concern, yellow eyes pinching together slightly when Thace cleared his throat.

“They are on the stones over there. Don’t worry about the light, that’s the spell. It won’t affect anyone but Altean’s - at least I think so. Nobody has ever tried to wake them so far.”  


“You think so?” Keith asked sharply and glowered at him. His hand reached out for Lance’s shoulder though, steadying him. Lance resisted the urge to take his hand and press a kiss against each of his claws.

“You have a magician with you, don’t you? If you hadn’t insisted on pinning me here I would have walked in there on my own.” For the first time, Thace seemed to show traces of impatience. Lance narrowed his eyes at him and carefully lifted Keith’s hand from his shoulder. Keith immediately turned around, alarmed. 

“Lance?”

“I’ll check this thing out. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a spell like that, what kind of element is it even supposed be? Light? That doesn’t affect a human’s body in any way though. They wouldn’t fall asleep from a light spell.” Lance glanced over at the outlines of body’s from the middle of the light source. “It’s not a curse either. Curses are dark, all of them.” It felt… it felt like magic. Like raw, pure magic. The kind of magic Lance had used to attempt to break Keith’s curse… but it was impossible to use raw magic in a spell without putting it into _any_ kind of form.

“It was supposed to be a curse,” Thace spoke. Both Lance and Keith turned towards him again. “It was supposed to be a curse, keeping the Alteans closer to death than to life for as long as there are still Galra living on this earth. But the crystal doesn’t do it. It refuses to hurt the Alteans in any way, so it put them to sleep instead.”

It shouldn’t make sense, it really shouldn’t. That was not how magic worked. A crystal? Magic was a potential inside of you. But Lance remembered the library, remembered reading over and over that the one of the only ways to break a Galran curse was to get an Altean and a Balmeran crystal. Somehow there were magical crystals in this world and somehow people called ‘Alteans’ existed. 

Lance send Keith a half hearted smile and made his way over to the light. Keith followed suit, but he pushed him back before he could touch the magic. Lance wasn’t sure what would happen if someone would come into contact with it, so he definitely wouldn’t allow Keith to go first. 

As soon as Lance entered the light, he felt a warm buzzing all over his skin. Startled he looked down, but nothing caught his eye. It was just him in a sea of raw magic that floated around peacefully, nothing uncontrolled and overwhelming like his own magic had been. 

Weird. 

Not a bad weird, but definitely weird. Lance raised his hand and stared in wonder as the light washed over it, not pulling at him, not showing him stuff, not doing anything.

“Lance?”

Blinking a few times to shake off the weird feeling he had gotten, Lance turned around to look at Keith. Keith was staring at him, a huge frown on his face. “What’s wrong?” he called back.

“You’re glowing.”  


Lance looked down at himself but couldn’t see anything. There was the turquoise light but it didn’t come from him, it just washed over him and filled him with that weird buzzing-

“It stopped. You stopped glowing. Lance, what’s going on?”

The buzzing had stopped, too. Lance could still feel the telltale hum of magic all around but his skin wasn’t vibrating anymore. 

What was going on? 

A good fucking question.

“Not a clue. It’s not bad though, so let’s just ignore it.” Keith didn’t seem content with that but lance didn’t leave him time to answer. “I just need to wake these two, yeah?” he asked, turning his head over to Thace. The Galra nodded silently. Lance let his eyes trail back towards Keith who was still frowning, evidently upset that Lance didn’t want him to follow him into the light. At this point Lance didn’t think that the magic would affect Keith at all but he didn't say anything. It didn’t matter anyway, he just had to hurry before-

Before what?

Completely stunned, Lance froze next to the woman on the stone. His potential was back. All the magical potential he had used up for the light spell was back… all of it. Incredulous he poked at it, wondering where it had come from. There is no way he could recover anything while still upholding the spell. And even if he had dropped the spell - which he hadn't - he wouldn’t have been able to recover this much this _fast_.

“Lance?!”

“I’m fine! Geez, Keith, stop worrying so much. I think- I think the light is friendly. It likes me. I like it,” Lance babbled as he reached out for one of the sleeping people. It was a beautiful woman, her stunningly silver hair flowing over the stone like a waterfall. The light seemed to encompass her, to hug her close and protect her, and Lance definitely couldn’t fault it for that. Maybe, if he hadn’t had Keith…

Lance shoved the thought aside. She was objectively beautiful, but he doubted that she could ever be better than Keith. In anything, really. Keith was the one that he trusted the most.

“It’s light. How can light be friendly?” Keith’s grumpy voice called out. Lance grinned. Nope, she definitely didn’t have anything on this stupid, reckless, loving idiot.

“It’s _magical_ light, Keith. It recognizes me as a worthy person and master and has decided to help me out,” he joked. Then he finally reached out for the woman’s shoulder, shaking her awake.

The moment his fingers touched her, she shot up.

“What- where- father?!” 

Lance blinked and let go of her shoulder. Her head immediately flew around, locking her eyes with his. They were blue, a similar shade as his when he was doing magic.

Wait. She could see him?

“Uh. No. The name’s Lance,” Lance grinned crookedly. Then he swallowed. Hadn’t Thace said something about a princess? And now she was able to see right through his spell?

“Lance…” she repeated slowly, a daze falling over her eyes. Lance waited for a few seconds but she didn’t speak up again. Figuring that it was his turn again, he coughed a little to get her attention.

“Yeah. Uh. So, I’ll just go and wake your frien-”

The woman’s eyes returned to his face and then suddenly she was crying. Not a lot, just a single tear that ran down her cheek, following the direction of a pink mark down to her chin.

What was he supposed to do now?!

“Uh, um, are you- are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?” Okay so, _maybe_ Keith wasn’t the only one who was shitty at comforting people. 

Her face hardened as a dark look took over her features. Lance instinctively took a step back, not wanting to be the recipient of that glare. Oh hell, it could almost rival Keith’s. “Zarkon,” she hissed. 

Well, at least they were on the same page.

“Right. We need your help to kick his ass. And to save my family. And to take the crystal back? Something like that. But first we need to wake up your friend, too.”

“My friend?” The woman cocked her head, then followed the direction of his finger towards the man on the stone next to her. She let out a gasp and scrambled to get up. “Coran! Coran, you are still here?! How- why-”

“Wow, wow, wow, easy there,” Lance said and pushed her back onto the stone. “According to that Thace over there you were asleep for… uh, a long time. Wake up properly before you try getting up.”

The woman ignored him completely. “I’m fine,” she said, clearly irritated with him. Lance decided that he didn't want to mess with her and let her make her way towards the man, watching as she shook his arm. “Coran? Coran, wake up!”

Similar to the woman, the man shot up at once. As soon as he was up, the turquoise light around them fell away completely. Lance flinched a little, he had felt safe with it surrounding him.

“What is- Allura?”

The woman fell forward, dragging the man into a hug. After a few moments of confusion, Lance saw him return it. Whatever they had gone to sleep to, it couldn’t have been anything nice. He exchanged a look with Keith and saw his thoughts mirrored on his face.

“Uh… I’m really sorry, but we are actually kind of in a hurry,” Lance spoke up. Now that the magic and its peaceful aura had disappeared, his worries had returned too. He had to get to his family, _now_. And - well, he guessed Thace had spoken the truth so that meant they still had to take the magic back. And there was a resistance?! Maybe? 

He coughed awkwardly. “If you could help us with getting my family back and kicking Zarkon’s butt, that’d be greatly appreciated.”

Looking weirdly panicked, the man stared at empty air in front of him. Huh, so it was only the woman that could see him? She let go of the man and turned around. 

And then froze, staring at nothing. Her eyes went right through him.

“Uh, you okay?” Lance asked carefully. Her eyes snapped over to him, but she still didn’t look at him. She was looking right through him, just the way she should have if she had been anything like other people. The magical glow in her eyes had receded too, he noted.

“Lance? Is… that you? Where are you?”

“Right here, where I’ve always been. I didn’t move,” he explained. She seemed confused, then something like realization seemed to dawn on her. 

“You’re a magician?”

“That I am,” Lance confirmed. He shuffled a little and looked at Keith who was watching him intently. Should he lift their spell? That wasn’t a good idea though, right? Should he place a spell on their eyes so that they could see him too?

Hell, what were they supposed to do with Thace now?

“A human magician!” An honest smile spread over her face and she got back onto her feet, still searching the air for any signs of him. “It’s been a long time since I’ve last met one of you. Light magic, was it?”

Lance laughed a little uncomfortably. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Not exactly my forte-”

“Which is why we need to hurry,” Keith butted in. Both the woman and the man jumped a little at the unexpected third voice. 

“Keith, you know they can’t see you. Maybe a little consideration next time?” Lance chided him. He wasn’t serious though and they both knew it. Keith send him an annoyed look.

“I’m doing this for you, dipshit. I know you can’t hold out much longer.”

“Oh, really? He seemed perfectly fine to me though,” the woman commented. Lance was glad that he still had the light spells intact, he wouldn’t have wanted her to see Keith’s glare. He looked kind of scary sometimes. 

“The magical light healed me. I told you that it acknowledged my awesomeness-”

“It healed you?! What kind of magical light can heal?” Keith demanded to know. He strutted over in a quick pace and narrowed his eyes at Lance’s face. Lance tried to look as innocent as possible, he _was_ fine. He might not know how to explain this kind of magic but it really had replenished his potential to its fullest. 

“It’s the raw magic from the Balmeran crystal,” Thace spoke from the door. All four people in the room turned to look at the Galra, who looked ridiculous pinned to the door by invisible shackles. Lance could let him go now, right? Whatever kind of people these two were, they were most certainly not Galran and their magic had healed him. So they were good. And Thace had let them to them. It should be fine.

With a wave of his hand, Lance called the water back. Thace abruptly fell forward as if he had leaned against it. He send a grateful smile in Lance’s vague direction before turning to look at the woman and man by the stones.

“Princess. Consultant.”

“Actually, I was more of an all-around kind of guy. Yes, I had my duties as the advisor but the princess can certify that I also worked as the castle’s chef and chief medical officer. Sometimes I even took care of the training regimen of our young cadets, that just comes hand-in-hand with being one of Altea’s high ranking soldiers.”

Lance shot Keith a look and got a shrug in return. For someone that had just woken up from a years-long deep slumber the guy sure talked a lot.

“I… will keep that in mind,” Thace replied, slightly uncomfortable. Lance suppressed a snort and focused on the woman again. She was a princess? It wasn’t that he had a hard time believing it, he simply didn’t know where they could be from. Altea, Thace had said. He remembered the word from the book he had stolen from the library but he didn’t know where that country was situated. 

“What is it that you and your companions want?” the woman asked. Thace lifted his head to look at her shortly, then lowered it again.

Keith apparently wasn’t quite happy with that.

“We’re not companions. I’m not even sure that we can trust him. Or trust you,” he said. Lance whipped his head around to stare at him. Keith couldn’t just _say_ that he didn’t trust a magical princess! That was both rude and dangerous!

Before he could apologize for Keith’s behavior, the princess had turned her head into the direction of his voice. “And neither do I know whether I can trust you. You have woken us from our sleep to help you, but you did not explain the situation we are in. You are acting rude and disrespectful while hiding behind a magic spell. I will be completely honest: out of all the people here I feel inclined to trust the Galra the most.”

“Princess?!” the orange haired man piped up in alarm. She smiled at him.

“Besides you, of course. You know that my trust in you is not even up to debate.” He smiled back at her but before he got the chance to say something, Thace got to his feet.

“My apologies princess, but the situation is urgent. I’m not sure when Haggar forced you to fall asleep, Zarkon’s followers destroyed almost every record about Altea’s history. The only thing I am sure about is that it has been over thousands of years since then and that the country is falling apart.”

The princess focused her sharp eyes on Thace and gave a light frown. “What is happening?”

“Zarkon has Altea completely under control. He is now calling it his empire. He… murdered almost all of your people and stole the Balmeran crystals.” Her breathing hitched a little and Lance stopped himself from sealing Thace’s mouth again. Way to be insensitive. But this was important, especially since he himself didn’t know anything about the crystal. Or Alteans.

“He has been reigning your country for thousands of years now… and he’s going insane. He got rid of human magicians centuries ago. Half-Galran people are next on his list. I am not sure how long it’ll take him to eradicate every human left…”

Lance froze up. If what Thace was saying really was the truth… then there used to be three different kinds of people in this country. Now there were only two left and Zarkon wanted to get it down to one. And if that was the case-

Did he even have any proof that his family was still alive?

Lance let out a choked noise and stumbled backwards. Keith was immediately next to him, steadying him by his shoulders, but he was only half aware of that. His family could be dead by now, all of this could have been just one big ploy to get him to the castle.

“Lance?! Lance, you need to calm down!”

“How can I calm down when my family might not even be alive anymore?!” Lance yelled at Keith. He was on the verge of another panic attack and he didn’t see any way to calm himself. His family might be dead. Dead. All of them. Mom, dad, Elena, Maria, Tristan, Becca, Jim. Hunk. They might be dead, their bodies rotting in one of the many prisoner cells around-

“Lance? Lance! Lance, listen to me-”

“They- Zarkon wants to- What if- _I can’t-”_ Lance was having a difficult time getting words out. Breathing was getting hard. Why was breathing so hard?!

Was his family still breathing?

Zarkon wanted to eliminate humanity…

“Lance! Lance, please! It’s fine, your family is-”

“Your family is alive,” Thace interrupted. Lance couldn’t make out where he was standing, all he saw was a blur of purple and yellow. Keith. Keith was standing right in front of him, their foreheads almost pressed together as his claws dug into his shoulders.

“Lance? Did you hear that? Thace said your family is alive. They are fine, Lance. You need to calm down.”

They were- they were fine. Were they really fine? Keith had been the one to say only moments ago that they couldn’t be sure to trust Thace. What if he was lying? 

No, no, that would make no sense, he wasn’t lying. That- he had no reason to lie. They were fine. They were fine, they were fine- right?! God, fuck, why couldn’t he believe that?!

“Lance, is it?” a foreign voice said. Lance kind of recognized but at the same time he didn’t. It sounded female, was there a female around? It reminded him of Becca. 

Was Becca okay?

“What do you-” _Keith_.

“Lance. Let go of the magic. It exhausts you and clouds your judgement.” Magic? What magic? _What did magic even matter?!_ He would gladly let go of all of his magic if he could. It’s because of his magic that his family was dead! 

It was because of his magic, right? Wasn’t it?! There was something missing, nothing made sense anymore-

“Lance!” Keith. Keith was still there. He tried breathing slowly, tried concentrating on Keith’s voice. Keith would know what to do. Keith. “Lance, you heard the princess! Let go of your magic!”

Let go… of his magic?

Right, there was… he could feel something. Something that pulled at him and sucked his energy away. If he could- if he could just- get rid of that-

Lance let go.

The change was instant. He could breathe easier and his head felt lighter, less crowded with thoughts. His panic eased up and he let himself fall forward a little. 

“Lance?”

“I’m fine,” he croaked out while he was still trying to get his rapid heartbeat under control. He was fine, right? Yeah, yeah he was. His family… Lance refused to let his breathing pick up again. No. Enough of that.

“Your family is alive,” Keith said. No one else spoke while he tried to ground himself. Thace had said that his family was fine. Lance wasn’t sure whether they could trust him on that but Keith seemed to believe it. How was Keith so sure of that?

With a considerable amount of effort Lance lifted his head to look at his boyfriend. Keith was staring down at him, his forehead creased in worry. Lance wanted to take his hands and smooth it out but he managed nothing more than a wobbly smile. “I’m fine?” He hated how it came out as a question more than anything. It made Keith frown even harder, so he straightened himself and tried again. “I’m fine.” 

Much better.

Keith was still frowning when he pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. “They are fine. You need to stop _worrying_ so much!”

Lance used the fact that Keith wasn’t able to see his face to make a grimace at him. Easier said than done. He had barely been able to sleep last night and he had just learned that Zarkon was trying to kill every human alive. What other reaction would be appropriate?!

“His magic is making matters worse,” the princess remarked suddenly. “He said that light magic isn’t his strong suit so he shouldn't use it while he is under emotional pressure. It tires both his body and his mind, magicians dealing with their weaker affinities are more unstable than usual.”

Lance blinked and tried to process this information. How would she know? 

“You sure know a lot about human magic…”  


“That’s because in our days there used to be an avid exchange of information between all those capable of magic. The princess was very invested in learning as much as she could, especially since she is one of the most talented magicians this country has ever seen!” 

The princess smiled a little abashedly at the man’s words but made no attempt to correct him. Instead she sent him a smile before settling her eyes back onto Lance. Suddenly he felt very self-conscious about hanging limply in Keith’s arms. There was something about her that made him want to prove that he wasn’t weak.

Keith was having none of that though, he didn’t let go of him at all. “Keith?!” he whispered confusedly.

“What?”

“You can let go now?”

“Was that a question or a statement?”

Lance poked against his side and hoped he didn’t notice how his hands were still shaking. “A statement. Let go, asshole.” And Keith did, albeit very slowly. Lance flashed him a half-smile before focusing on the princess. She was warily looking at Keith’s back.

“I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Allura, I am - _was_ ,” she corrected herself and frowned a little, “heir to the Altean throne. The last thing I remember is Zarkon and his witch attacking the castle and corrupting the Balmeran crystals. He also-” She cut herself off and stared at nothing until her advisor called her back to the present. Refocusing on Lance, Keith and Thace she continued speaking. “As far as I know he also killed my father. And now he his making this country suffer.”

“Princess…”

“Not now, Coran. I want to put an end to this. Lance, I have to thank you for waking us up. I will not allow any harm to come to your family.” Lance swallowed and unconsciously reached out for Keith, who immediately took his hand. He had no troubles believing that he was talking to a real princess, something about her aura simply demanded respect. She would keep her word.

If she could, that is.

The princess - Allura - turned her head towards Thace. “And what is your name?”

“Thace, your majesty. I’m one of the few Galra that aren’t happy about Zarkon’s way of leading the country. It was only recently that I discovered the organised human resistance movement and contacted them to form an alliance against him.” She nodded earnestly, then turned towards Keith.

“What about you?”

“Keith.” 

When Keith didn’t add anything else, Lance tugged at his arm a little. He only seemed confused though, so Lance sighed and took it upon himself to introduce them correctly. 

“I’m Lance and this is Keith. I’m- well. I’m a magician, so I’m not exactly fond of Zarkon. Keith’s a halfbreed and wanted by the Galra, dead or alive-”

“ _Lance_.”

Lance forced a grin. The situation was wearing him down. He just wanted to get his family back. “Hey, it’s not a lie!”

But Keith just kept scowling, unamused. He sighed and pressed his hand in apology, then turned towards the princess one more time. “Apparently Keith is pretty strong, so they either want him dead or on their side.”  


“I’d rather die than help them,” Keith spat out. Lance could feel himself getting concerned, Keith was too high strung. Again. Part of it was probably his fault with all the panic attacks he had been suffering from but part of it was definitely Keith working himself up needlessly. So he squeezed his hand and mumbled a soft ‘I know’, noting how Keith’s shoulders dropped a little. Good.

“Nice to meet you two! My name is Coran. I am the princess’ loyal servant and I am all on board with - what did you call it? - kicking Zarkon’s butt!”

Lance suppressed a giggle at the way Coran twirled his moustache. That guy was… _extra_ , but he couldn’t say he disliked him.

Thace cleared his throat, effectively drawing attention to himself. “I hate to remind you of this, but we are on a tight schedule. The members of the resistance are waiting just outside the castle, if they get discovered before we take the magic back they will all be in grave danger.”

And just like that Lance started shaking again. Matt was out there. And Shiro. Pidge too? He didn’t know.

“Right. What is the plan?” The princess asked.

“They store all of the Balmeran crystals in a room several floors above us. We need to get in there and send the humans a signal - since we didn’t know for sure what kinds of magic you can do, we agreed on letting it be ‘something flashy’. The soldiers in the castle will know about us, so we will double as a distraction from the actual attack. As long as we can defend the room we should be safe in there.”

Both the princess and her advisor nodded and Keith and Lance exchanged a look. He couldn’t quite believe what was happening. What had started out as a rescue mission for his family had turned into a take-the-country-back-from-Zarkon mission. And not only that: they had discovered an almost extinct species of people, were about to remove all the magic from the Galra’s possession and fought alongside an organized resistance movement. Because that apparently totally existed. Led by Shiro. And they were allied with a Galra that knew Keith’s father.

Lance’s head was still whirling when the Altean princess, Coran and Thace set out for the door. “Well then, what are we waiting for? You said that your allied humans are in danger for every second we stay here. We need to get to the crystal room, now.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lance called them back. Even Keith turned to look at him in surprise. Did they all just forget?! “I’m not leaving my family in prison! If the Galra find out that we’re here to kick them out of the castle for good, what do you think they’re gonna do?”

Thace frowned at him. “We don’t have time for that. Besides I doubt that their first priority would be to kill harmless prisone-”

“We are not leaving without Lance’s family,” Keith interrupted coldly and tugged him closer. Lance could feel his heart swell with gratitude. “Have fun getting to the crystal room undetected without his light magic.”

Before Thace could say something else, the princess cut in. “He is right. I promised that no harm would come to Lance’s family and I keep my promises.”  


“That she does,” Coran said fondly.

“We are getting them out first,” she decided. Thace didn’t look too happy about it but it wasn’t as if he still had a choice. It was four against one and they wouldn’t let go of this.

“Alright. I’ll lead you there, we will have to hurry though. And maybe-” Thace stopped talking, his eyes wandering uncertainly between the princess and Lance. Lance could feel his eyebrows raising.

“Yeah?”

“It would be a lot easier if you could hide yourselves. Like you said. But if that’s too risky-”

“No, I’ll do it,” Lance cut in. Now that they were finally on the track of getting his family back he wouldn’t waste any time on thinking up elaborate strategies. Thanks to the magical light he wasn’t even close to exhaustion yet and he was fairly confident that no matter what they would encounter now, he wouldn’t have another panic attack. Not after he had suffered through thinking his family was genuinely gone for good.

They weren’t dead. They were fine and Lance was going to get them back. 

The princess turned towards him, her eyebrows drawn together. “Are you sure? Your magic might not have exhausted you yet but it puts a lot of stress onto your mind.”

Lance briefly thought back to his sleepless night and his magic almost running out before but he honestly didn’t even consider backing out of this. His family needed him. What was he doing, wasting time like this?

“My dearest princess, you don’t-”

“Please, call me Allura. I am not much of a princess at the moment.” Lance begged to differ but figured that he could fight her later on that. He forced a grin instead.

“Allura then. You don’t have to worry, I’m plenty strong. I’d be nothing short of cowardice if I didn’t perform a simple magic spell on-”

“ _Lance_ ,” Keith said in a warning tone. Lance winced and squeezed his hand once.

“God, _fine_. No one appreciates my efforts to light the mood. If that’s what you want to hear: I couldn’t care less about tiring myself out. We are talking about my family. There is literally nothing I wouldn’t do for them.” He knew that Keith - and everyone else - was looking at him after that unexpected burst of honesty, but he kept talking. It was time to finally make their move. “So, let’s do this. You’re first, Keith.”

He turned towards Keith, gave him a half-smile and gripped his hand a little tighter. With a deep breath Lance reached out for his magic and casted the cloaking spell over him. 

“We can find another way to-”

“Shut up, it’ll be fine.” There, he did it. Lance opened his eyes again and raised an eyebrow at Keith. “I’m not sure what part of my little speech you didn’t get but I’ll say it again: we’re talking about my family. So no, I’m not going to waste any more time in here.”

He turned around to reach out for Allura and Coran and smiled at the sound of Keith’s footsteps following behind. It was kind of weird to have someone hovering protectively close while he was just casting spells but - well. He couldn’t say he disliked it. Especially not after a wave of exhaustion rolled over him. He actually just wanted to bury himself in Keith’s arms. But not yet, he still had to disguise himself and get to his family. And take the castle out of Zarkon’s evil hands in passing, no big deal. 

Right.

“Lance, my boy? I really appreciate your effort to hide us with your mediocre human magic but it would be grand if you could also give us the ability to see where we are. I feel like a member of the Oximporan on the darkest day of the year, that is to say: blinder than blind!” Coran spoke.

“We are not blind though,” Keith pointed out. Lance just sighed and grabbed each of their hands, wishing that they were able to see through his magic on their own. 

Then again, his magic would be totally useless like that, wouldn’t it?

“Alright, just give me a moment, you should be able to see…” he let the sentence trail off, focusing on completing the spell instead. 

Dizziness. 

When Coran let out a happy noise, Lance knew he had successfully completed the spell. He took a moment to lean against Keith, soaking up his warmth, trying to regain his balance, then straightened himself out again. Thace was squinting in their general direction and Lance groaned as he realized that he would have to cast another spell.

“Hey, you alright?” Keith frowned. 

“Don’t overdo it,” Allura reminded him. Lance took his time to playfully nudge Keith, then sent her a mischievous grin.  


“No need to worry, your magical light thingie over there refreshed me completely. Your savior is ready to kick ass and nothing’s gonna stop him!”

He set out to get to Thace and almost tripped over air. Keith seemed to have anticipated this, his hand was already in front of him, preventing him from losing his balance.

“Lance-”

“Nice save, thanks buddy. But we really have to get going now.” Keith seemed ready to argue when Allura chimed in again.

“He is right. We keep stalling. Enough of this. Lance, enable Thace to see us. If you ever need a break on our trip to the dungeons-”

“Dungeons?!” Lance squeaked.

“Oh yeah, once upon a time we kept our prisoners in dungeons. That is, if we really wanted to prevent them from escaping. Unfortunately that proved to be both unhygienic and a waste of space, so they got turned into storerooms instead. The Galra might have taken them up again though,” Coran supplied helpfully. Lance tried his best to ignore the pictures of his siblings chained to cold and moist dungeon walls that his mind conjured.

“Please tell me that’s not where they are keeping them,” Lance said in a pleading tone. Even Keith had gone tense next to him. But Thace’s uncomfortable face was answer enough. “Oh my god…”

“Lance. Calm down.” Letting out a weak laugh, Lance looked up at Keith. Calm down. Easier said than done. He had to do it though, he couldn’t afford another panic attack. 

“I am calm. Totally calm.”

“You are most certainly not-”

“Enough!” Allura interrupted both of them. They shut their mouths in unison and Lance finally took a hold of Thace’s hand. That Galra flinched a little at the unexpected contact but made no move to retract his hand. 

Just a little later, the five of them were out of the room with the iron doors and on their way to the dungeons. Thace led the way and Keith followed closely behind, his hand carefully wrapped around Lance’s wrist. Lance was almost tempted to tell him to shift back to human so that they could hold hands properly but he knew that they would have to be prepared for any and all situations. 

A little behind him, there was Allura. She seemed to know exactly where she was going, even if her face sometimes betrayed her distress at the state the castle was in. Once or twice Lance wanted to comfort her but he honestly didn’t know what to say and he soon noticed that Coran was always there to place a hand on her shoulder whenever that happened.

Coran. He sure was something else. Lance still felt the urge to laugh at the weird crab-walking thing he did whenever Thace signaled for them to walk quietly. But despite him acting goofily, Lance could see that he was just as serious about the entire thing as Allura was, so he settled for concentrating on Keith and his magic instead. Thinking about what a weird team the five of them made didn’t do him any good.

After a few corners and stairs and one especially close encounter with a Galra patrol, they came to a sudden stop in front of a guarded door. Lance and Keith shared a look, from here on out they would have to hurry. There would have to knock the soldiers out and then it would only be a matter of time until another patrol came across them and figured out what was going on.

Shit was about to go down.

Lance’s heart started beating wildly and he twisted his wrist to grab Keith’s hand. In a gesture of comfort Keith tapped his thumb against his. He sent him a half smile, then looked over at Thace and nodded. 

They were ready. 

_Fuck_.

As ready as they could be at least.

Thace nodded back and stepped into the torchlight surrounding the door to the dungeons. The two guards immediately turned to look at him.

“What are you doing here?”

“Visiting,” Thace replied calmly. Lance shot him a look and let go of Keith’s hand. That guy desperately needed some training in distracting people, he thought as he made his way over towards the Galra soldier on the right. He could see Keith mimicking his actions on the left side.

“Visiting whom? Did the Lady Haggar give you permission to?” Keith’s soldier said.

“The dungeons are reserved for the magician’s family,” added the Galra on Lance’s side. 

“I am aware. And no, the witch did not give me permission…” Thace let the sentence trail off and Lance cringed a bit. He could see Keith face palming and nodded at him, they had to cut this conversation short. _Now_.

The moment Keith lunged at his soldier, Lance tackled his own. They fell to the ground, his knees uncomfortably hitting hard stone and scraping up a little. Lance winced but didn’t let up on his grip against the Galra’s mouth, attempting to muffle the surprised shout before quickly withdrawing his hands and replacing them with water. That was close, he had already felt devilishly sharp teeth against his skin. 

And then there was suddenly a clawed hand coming for his chest.

Before Lance could get into any real trouble, Thace had already kicked the Galra in the head. His hand fell limply to the ground, he was unconscious. Lance smiled gratefully, he probably would have died if he hadn’t intervened. There wasn’t enough water to properly defend himself with.

God, he had fought against too many Galra these last few days.

“Retrieve the keys and open the doors. We will find a cell to lock them in and take the key’s with us, that will hopefully distract the Galra for a few more minutes once they notice the that guards are gone,” Allura commanded while Keith helped Lance back onto his feet. She had already grabbed the soldier that Keith had knocked out and hoisted him up by his armpits. Thace immediately reached out for her.

“Princess, you really don’t have to-”

“Nonsense. And I told you to call me Allura. Now where are the keys? The dungeons are large, I hope you know which cell they are kept in.”

Thace didn’t seem to be happy about her orders but didn’t protest. Instead, he reached for the keys dangling from the Galra’s belt and started to try out the ones that could possibly fit. With every passing moment Lance could feel his anxiety growing. It was building up in him and made his heart race like crazy - his family! They were right behind this door! Why couldn’t he _hurry up?!_ \- when he felt Keith nudge against him. 

Lance looked at him questioningly but Keith was frowning at the ground. Following his gaze, Lance noticed that he had started to bounce his leg. He hadn’t even noticed that he was doing it. Swallowing once, Lance forced it to a stop.

“You okay?”

“I will be,” Lance answered in a clipped tone. He didn’t really feel okay right now. His _family_ was- he hadn’t even seen them in years, he had never even really gotten the chance to say goodbye- and now they were- would they hate him? Did they miss him? Lance had missed them. He had missed them a lot. He still missed them right this moment-

The door clicked and Thace let out a relieved noise. Lance’s nerves skyrocketed and he almost felt like throwing up. His family was somewhere in there. 

“Lance? Hey. Stay calm,” Keith spoke. He had placed his hand between his shoulder blades and Lance focused on breathing. Right. This would work out. They would be fine. He would get his family to safety first and worry about his guilt later. He had to remember that using light magic made him more emotional and that it really wasn’t useful now.

“Right. Thanks,” he croaked out. Keith frowned and didn’t move, not even when Coran squeezed himself past him to grab the Galra that Thace had knocked out. “It’s all good now,” Lance insisted. Keith was still frowning and Lance lifted a finger to press it against his eyebrows. Almost immediately they smoothed out and he cracked a smile. They had done this so many times last night that Keith still had an instinctual reaction to it.

“Come on, no time to linger,” Coran chirped and dragged the Galra through the door. Allura followed closely behind, while Thace held the door open for Lance and Keith to pass through. Lance didn’t hesitate to follow suit, making Keith trail after him.

“Alright, where to now?” he asked and forced his voice to adopt a light tone. Allura nodded at Thace, who had let go of the door and was now taking up his position at the front of the group again.

It got dark almost immediately.

Also, it was cold.

“Follow me. It’s not that far, they wanted to keep them close to the exit in case that Lance and Keith decided to show up. They are in one of the bigger cells on the right.”

Lance could feel his anxiety rising again and unconsciously reached out towards Keith. He could barely make out the shadow of Thace in front of him if his yellow eyes didn’t face his way. Stupid Galra and their stupid night vision. And stupid Alteans too, they seemed to have no problems with the change in lighting either. He, lame, _human_ Lance, would probably trip and break his neck before they ever reached his family.

As soon as Keith understood what the problem was, he settled an arm around Lance’s shoulder. Trusting him not to make him walk against any walls, Lance followed his guidance. Thace was walking rather fast and Lance had to concentrate on not _dying_ over here. He meant it in a metaphorical sense but after a sharp turn to the right he realized a little hysterically that without Keith he might have actually died in here. He could have walked against a wall and cracked his skull. He would have died trying to save his family - just because he didn’t have stupid night vision!

“Alright, here they are,” Thace exclaimed and came to a stop. Lance couldn’t see where they were but from the sound of metal against wood he assumed that they were in front of a big, wooden door. The entrance to the cell that held his family. Why was it so quiet? Was the door that thick? Was his family really in there? Were they scared that the Galra came to kill them?

Unwillingly Lance let out a tiny whimper. He just wanted to see that they were okay. He wanted to get them to safety and not knowing whether he would be able to absolutely _killed_ him.

“Lance?”

“Please tell him to hurry up,” he whispered back urgently. Keith tightened his hold around his shoulders but didn’t say anything. They waited and waited and waited until Thace finally found the right key to open the door.

It clicked.

Lance’s heart stopped.

Slowly and with a lot of effort, Lance could see the door opening. His eyes had started to get used to the darkness and while his vision wasn’t good yet, it was definitely better than before. He practically vibrated on the spot with his need to rush forward and check whether his family was still in there, when-

“Hello, my name is Thace. We came to get you out of here.”

They were _there_.

Lance shot out from under Keith’s arm and ignored the startled noise he made. He tripped over one of the legs of the Galra that Coran had dragged next to the door but steadied himself at the last second.

“Easy there, young boy-” Coran began, but Lance ignored him. He pushed past him and finally reached the door, letting his hand settle on the wood as he took his first look inside the cell.

People. There were so many people. So many! There had to be ten, at the very least. He remembered only seven. Wait, including Hunk there should be eight. Lance was alarmed to find that he couldn’t immediately tell who was who, but he found Hunk soon enough. None of them were chained anywhere, thank god. He had just started to make his way towards him when-

That was his _mom_.

Tears sprung into his eyes as he ran towards the short woman at the center of the group. Lance was vaguely aware of the broken noise he had made but he didn’t spare it any thought. Who cared about that anyway. His mom was _right there_. Heads were turning into his direction but it was too dark to see their expressions. As soon as he reached his mother, he fell onto his knees and tightly wrapped his arms around her. 

Oh my god.

It was his mom. _His mom!_

She was colder than he remembered her being but that might have been because the dungeons were cold. She still smelled like herself and her hair was just as soft as ever. Lance was relieved to find that she hadn’t become as frail as he had feared during the years he had been gone.

When Lance had first thrown his arms around her, she had struggled. Maybe she hadn’t recognized him? But then she had suddenly stilled completely and Lance buried his face in her hair. “Mom,” he whispered brokenly. 

The entire dungeon was dead silent.

Then, slowly, oh so slowly, Lance could feel hands coming up around his back. “Lance?” his mother asked softly, unbelievingly. Small hands settled on his shoulders and he fought back a sob. She was there. She was real. She remembered him.

She had said his _name_.

“Mom! Mom, I missed you so much. I _always_ thought about you and everyone else. I was so worried. Are you okay? Are you hurt? Have they done anything to you?” Lance loosened his embrace to look her in the face. Tears made his vision blurry and he roughly wiped them away. Now was not the time. He had to check whether she was okay. 

His mother’s eyes were wide and they stared right through him. “Lance?! Lance, is that you?!”

All of a sudden a lot of noise broke out. People were scrambling to get closer to him and at least three bodies rammed straight into him before he noticed that he was still disguised by his light spell. 

“Lance? Where is he?!”

“Let me see, get out of the way-”

“There’s something here, wait, I can’t go any closer-”

“Is Lance a ghost?!”

“Mom, what are you talking about, there is no one- _what the fuck is this-_ ”

“Lance?! If you’re really there, say something!”

Lance let out a laugh and drew his mother close again. She squeezed right back this time, hard, and almost cut off his breathing. He had _missed_ this. He had missed this so much… he had his family back and his heart hurt like it never had before.

“Guys! Yeah guys, it’s me.” Another wave of chatter started up, but Lance raised his voice to speak over them again. “I’m currently disguised by a light magic spell. It makes me invisible. I’m going to place the same spell onto all of you, so you have to gather around mom and grab some part of my skin. Becca, Maria? I especially need your help now, come closer.”

There was a lot of shuffling, then two of his sisters pushed to the front. Lance beamed at them and took their hands, never fully removing himself out of his mother’s embrace. They sucked in a sharp breath and searched the air for any trace of him, but Lance could see their eyes going right through him.

“Alright, just-” He thought for a bit, then placed their hands against his neck. He wore a long sleeved shirt and there were a lot of people he had to disguise so he had to distribute them as evenly as possible. There wasn’t enough of his skin to go around. “Stay like this. Now, everyone else come here-”

“Lance!” Hunk exclaimed and waved exaggeratedly into his direction. 

“Hunk!” Lance waved back enthusiastically and almost smacked Jim in the process before he remembered that _no_ , Hunk couldn’t see him either. None of them could. 

“Alright, uh. Here’s how we gonna do it. Thace will help you to- okay, wait a second, let me get up- no, I need space, not- argh. Whatever. Thace is that big scary Galra guy over there. He’s not evil and he can see through my spell already so he’ll help you to get into position. I need to- Jim, what the fuck, let go!”

“Language, Lance,” his father said sternly. Lance laughed and almost missed Jim’s squeaked ‘never!’. 

‘ _Language_ ’. How long had it been since anyone had chided him for his foul language?

“Sorry dad. I really need to get up though. Everyone of you needs to touch me, so-” Lance fought to get back onto his legs, while his sisters scrambled to not let go of his neck. Then the entire group took a step backward and Lance turned his head to look at what was happening.

Nothing. It was just Thace approaching.

“What should I do? We don’t have any-”

“We don’t have any time to waste, blah blah blah, I know,” Lance interrupted him. Thace struggled to keep a neutral expression and Lance couldn’t help but smirk at him. He still wasn’t sure whether he liked him, but riling him up was pretty fun. Maybe it was a nice-Galra kind of thing since he could say the same about Keith.

Not the not being sure about liking him part. The riling up part. Lance was definitely, one hundred percent sure he liked Keith.

“You just-” he raised his arms and pushed his sleeves as far up as possible, then extended them to the sides. “I’ll tell you whom to take where. Get my mom and bring her to my right hand.” Thace waved at his mother to come closer and she did, albeit very reluctantly. Her hand was shaking when Thace slowly guided her to Lance’s. Lance squeezed it and his mom smiled, but the trembling didn’t stop.

Well. Assuming that she reacted like this because Thace was a Galra, introducing Keith would turn out to be an adventure.

Not that he should be worrying about that now.

“Now my dad! Left hand!” Thace waited for his father to approach him and guided him to Lance’s hand. He wasn’t trembling but his grip as a lot stronger than what Lance would deem comfortable. He wiggled his fingers to make his point and his father seemed to understand, his hold loosening a little. 

“Take me! I wanna go next!”

“But you _just_ clung to him! I didn’t get to touch him at all yet!” Jim and Elena were fighting and Lance raised his eyebrows at them. Hunk hadn’t been kidding. They really had grown up to be quite a handful.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there is no need to fight, there is enough of me to go around,” Lance announced. Well. Hopefully there was. He could hear a faint slapping noise behind him and a glance over there showed him that yep, Keith _had_ just face palmed himself. He smirked and shot him a wink, mouthing ‘that’s what I tell them but you know I only love you’. Keith’s narrowed eyes told him that he hadn’t understood, so he just rolled his eyes and got back to work.

“Right. Elena left, Jim right. On my arms.” Both of his siblings seemed low-key scared of Thace but neither protested when they were guided to his arms. Elena’s head was slightly sweaty and Jim was _definitely_ trying to cut off his blood circulation but he’s had worse.

“Ow, Jim, have mercy on me! I can’t fight you right now, my hands are full,” Lance mock complained. Jim beamed into his direction and increased the pressure on his arm. What a little shit. He’d have to pay him back later.

“Jim, Lance. No fighting.”  


“Yes, mom. Sorry, mom. Now, uh - Hunk to my left arm. Elena, move over.” His sister grumbled and moved around their father to grab his arm from the other side, then Thace guided Hunk to his arm. Hunk seemed surprisingly calm about this, but that might have been because he had already met Keith. It made the whole prospect of ‘there are nice Galra' a little less difficult to believe.

Okay. Now there were still three people left. 

“Tristan, get your ass over here! Right arm!”

“Lance,” his mother chided and flicked against his hand. He let out a laugh, he was getting scolded for foul language. _Again_. 

He was home.

Tristan took hold of Lance’s right arm and narrowed his eyes in his general direction. He missed Lance’s face by a hand’s width and it made him grin smugly. Now was not the time for teasing but once this all way over with… he couldn’t wait to spend time with them again.

Two people left. No space anymore. Lance didn’t even remember their names, even if he did remember that they were the spouses of Tristan and Becca respectively. Wait, didn’t Tristan already have a child?!

“It’s Alya and Jay,” Maria whispered into his ear. Lance lightly knocked his head against hers to show his gratitude, then nodded towards the last people still left. “Alya and her child both need to touch me too. Mom, can you shuffle over a bit?” His mother complied and the young woman hurried over, squeezing herself between his mother and her husband.

How to touch though?

“Uh… maybe mom can let go of my hand so that the baby and Alya can use it and… uh…”  


“No worries, I got this,” Tristan spoke and tugged at his mother’s hand to take up his place. Lance frowned at him, it still left him without any contact. But then Tristan grinned devilishly and before Lance could process anything, a hand was pushed up right against his face. He spluttered and tried to move away but all the hands kept him in place.

“There we go!”

“Oh my god, stop- let go you- stop touching my face! You- _ew_ , Tristan, your fingers taste _disgusting!”_

“Lance, what the fuck, don’t open your mou-”

“ _Tristan_.”

“Sorry mother.” Lance let out a loud laugh and threw his head back. He knocked it against Becca’s and he groaned in pain, apologizing quickly. She just mumbled ‘whatever’ and flicked against his head. He grinned - it was a relief to hear that she was still as calm as ever. Anyone else might have murdered him by now.

“Jay! Over here!” Lance called out towards the guy he had never seen before. He didn’t hesitate to approach him though and easily allowed Hunk to guide him to a tiny free space that was still left on his left arm. Lance breathed in deeply, then closed his eyes.

Alright, time to do this.

To his pleasant surprise, Jay also had a light affinity. It wasn’t his primary as with Becca or Maria but it was definitely there. Collecting as much of their potential as he could, Lance casted the first spell over all eleven people that touched him.

So _many_.

A wave of exhaustion crashed over him, heavy enough that he almost fell to his knees. But he wasn’t finished yet, he still had to cast the spell that allowed them to see through his magic. The confused noises from all around him showed him that he had at least managed to completely disguise them all.

He managed the spell, but just barely. 

The moment he finished it, he let his arms drop down and fell onto his knees. Hunk had expected as much and caught him before he could scrape them up any worse than they already were. And hell, his _head_. It was killing him. What the fuck, how was he supposed to walk to the crystal room like this? 

“Lance?! Oh my god, Lance, are you okay?”

“Lance! It’s him, it’s really him!”

“Lance, what’s wrong?”

“Did something happen? Wait, did the spell disappear?! Are you okay?!”

“Lance! It’s you! Are you alright?!”

Lance huffed out a weak laugh and leaned against Hunk. His friend pulled him back onto his feet and directly into his arms. It felt nice and warm. A little wrong somehow but definitely nice. “Lance, oh my god! I was so worried! We all were, how did you get in here?!”

“Keith,” he answered vaguely. And oh. That’s why the hug felt wrong.

Lance turned his head to look for Keith and found him still standing next to the door, smiling a little awkwardly at the whole situation. He couldn’t help but beam back at him and wave him over - he had them back. Lance had his family back and it was all thanks to Keith. And Thace, a little. But he didn’t really want to hug Thace so he would ignore that part.

“Keith! Come over here, I want to introduce you!”  


Ouch. Okay, no more yelling on his part.

Immediately all of Lance’s family turned around to stare at Keith. His face twisted up in discomfort and he shifted his weight uncertainly and Lance knew that the stares probably weren’t all that friendly. He pressed his lips together and suppressed a frown. He had been the same, he reminded himself, he hadn’t trusted Keith at all when he had first met him in his Galran form.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, but now is not the time for introductions,” Allura cut in. All the attention in the dungeon shifted towards her. “We still need to take the magic back and we have wasted enough time as it is. The Galra might discover the missing guards at any moment.” Her eyes - and consequently everyone else’s too - strayed towards the two unconscious Galra on the floor. Coran took that as his cue to pull them into the dungeon and chain them to the walls. 

“I would say sleep well but I don’t really want you to,” Coran announced as soon as he was finished with his work. Lance grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up, he could relate. Coran had just gained at least fifty new friendship points.

“Good. Let’s move then,” Allura commanded and started towards the exit. Thace and Coran followed suit but Keith and his family stayed rooted to the spot until Lance tried to take a pathetic step forward. His legs gave out right away and he had never been more grateful for Hunk than when he didn’t let go of him. And ah damn, his head was really hurting badly. He hoped the room wasn’t that far.

Suddenly, Keith was right next to him. 

“I’ll take him.”

Hunk didn’t complain and helped Lance settle onto his back. He shot his friend a grin as he comfortably wrapped his arms around Keith’s neck, nuzzling his cheek against his hair. Keith’s hair wasn’t quite as long as in his human form but still long enough for him to do this. Lance loved it. Hunk flashed him a smile of his own, never straying from their side.

As soon as they were out of the door, Lance could hear the whispers starting up. His family followed them closely, mostly able to walk on their own without running into any walls. Well, they had been in the dark for quite a long time now… three days? 

Lance felt guilty for not coming sooner and hid his face in Keith’s back.

“Lance?”

“I’m fine. You just keep walking,” Lance replied sternly. 

“Are you really though? You look kind of horrible,” Hunk remarked. Lance cocked an eyebrow and turned his head back to the side to stare at him directly.

“Gee, thanks buddy.”  


“No offense! You know that you don’t usually look bad. But right now? You definitely do. Horrible even.”

Lance continued to glare at Hunk for another few seconds, then huffed out a laugh and let his head drop back into Keith’s hair. He still liked the smell of it a lot. If he concentrated on it enough he could pretend that it made his headache disappear. “Magical exhaustion. You know how I get.”  


“Yeah, I guess I do. I just haven’t seen it in years…”

Hunk’s voice quieted when new footsteps joined them. Lance had to fight against his exhaustion to turn his head to the other side, just to be met with the sight of Coran bending over towards them. “Wha-?!”

“Nothing, nothing, the princess wanted me to check up on you. How are you doing, young lad?” Lance could hear Keith snort at the words and tried to kick him with his leg. It didn’t really work out, it more felt like an exaggerated dangle and Lance cursed his weak stamina. He would definitely have to work on that. 

“I’m fine. I can hold out till we reach the room, no worries.” Coran squinted at him, then nodded and made his way towards the back of the group. Lance felt a frown settle on his face, wasn’t Allura at the front? Or maybe she had been in the back this whole time and his head had just confused it? 

He wanted to turn his head to check, but he found that he couldn’t move it anymore. Too heavy, too much effort.

God damnit. He had to stay awake!

Lance gritted his teeth and was sure he had completely lost his mind when they suddenly stopped walking. But it was just Thace opening the door to the hallways again - and suddenly there was light. It was just the light from the torch next to the doors but it was enough to make him groan and press his eyes together. He could hear his actions mimicked by his family members behind him and managed a small smile.

They were still there.

With _a lot_ of effort, Lance pushed himself away from Keith. He blinked against the light and tears and turned his head to take his first real look at his family. There they all were: dirty and pale, hiding their faces in their hands. Elena was the first one to let go, despite the sudden increase in light making her cry heavily. Her eyes immediately found Lance’s and he grinned at her. He wished he could have found the strength to lift his arms and wave or something but it turned out that he didn’t need to: she rushed forward and hugged him from behind. Keith let out a breathless ‘oof’ from under him.

“Don’t drop me, asshole.”  


“Shut it, Lance. You do your job and I’ll do mine,” Keith replied. Lance felt him adjusting his grip so that he wouldn’t move as easily as before. He smiled and weakly wiggled his right hand against Keith’s cheek, thanking him. Keith pressed into it shortly, then moved out of the doorway to make space for the rest of his family.

Elena was still stuck to his back. “Yo, Elena. How ya doing? Hunk said you gave mom a lot of troubles all this time.”

She let out a strangled laugh and pressed her face closer to him. Lance really wanted to return her hug, but he was glued to Keith. Not that he minded it that much…

“Hunk’s lying.”  


_“Excuse me?!_ I am _not_ , I recall you actually hiding the vegetables when you didn’t want to eat more of your mother’s amazing soup anymore,” Hunk bristled. Elena stiffened against Lance’s back, then she let go of him. 

“Yeah well, that wasn’t my idea,” she said, her eyes wandering over to Jim. Jim, who had just stopped pressing his palms to his eyes, shot her a betrayed look.

“You _promised_ you wouldn't tell! And it was _you_ who hid them, I was just joking!”

“That was your idea?!” Tristan laughed suddenly. But before his family could get into a real discussion on whose fault it was that they didn’t get to eat more vegetable soup, Allura spoke up again.

“Everyone, please quiet down. We will now make our way to the crystal room and we will most likely cross Galra on our way there. I beg you all to stay calm and refrain from talking from here on out. Thace and I will lead the way, Coran will follow behind to make sure that no one gets lost. Got any questions?”

His family stayed dead silent. If Lance had been in their place he would have probably had a ton of questions but he’d have been too intimidated to ask. He hoped that he could explain the situation a little more once they were in the crystal room.

When no one answered, Allura nodded at Thace and the two of them began walking. Lance let his head drop back onto Keith’s shoulder, simultaneously both relieved and uncomfortable at the silence. Relieved because this was a lot better for his headache; uncomfortable because he felt that much closer to losing consciousness. It also made him anxious that he could never be sure that his family was still there, that he hadn’t just dreamed it all up, until Hunk settled a hand on his shoulder. Lance tiredly looked up at him.

_‘You got us out of here, man. We’re all here. You’re good’_ is what he mouthed at him. Lance forced his lips into a smile and was alarmed to feel how much he had to concentrate on that. Fucking shit. He needed to hold out until he reached the crystal room, he couldn’t fail them all.

A few stairwells later and Lance wasn’t sure whether he was alive anymore. He couldn’t really feel his body apart from the dull throbbing in his head. What was happening? Were they still moving? Why was it dark again?

No really, why was it dark again? Were they back in the dungeons?

Lance realized that his eyes had slipped closed. He forced them open and saw his environment shaking. Why was it shaking? Oh, right, they were moving. To the crystal rom. He had to stay awake until they reached the crystal room.

How much farther still?

The movement stopped. He could hear someone whispering something from his right but he wasn’t sure who it was and what they said. The next thing he realized were bright blue eyes frowning down at him. He knew those eyes… whom did they belong to again?

“Lance. Can you hold out until the crystal room? There are still some stairs left. We had to take a longer route because there were too many soldiers in the main hall.”

A woman. Lance knew this woman. She didn’t belong to his family. That was… that was Allura! The magical princess!

Could he hold out until the crystal room? Lance didn't know.

The frown on her face deepened, then she suddenly walked away. They didn’t start moving again though, so she must have had some kind of plan. What kind of plan? He was the only magician here…

An arm appeared in his sight again and grabbed at his hands on Keith’s chest. What the fuck. Did they want to separate him from Keith?! Never. He wouldn’t allow that. He tried to hold tighter onto Keith but he was pretty sure that he failed when his hands were pried apart easily. To his relief the person didn’t try to tug him away from Keith’s shoulders, they merely held his hand.

Why would anyone that wasn’t Keith hold his hand?  


“Lance? Hold on a little longer. We’re almost there,” another female voice whispered. Lance recognized it immediately. That was Maria, the sister he had grown up with. They were only one year apart in age and had consequently always hung out together. She was also typically the one that stopped him from doing stupid shit before Hunk came along.

It was good to see her again. Even if he couldn’t actually see her. Just her arm. When had she gotten so tall?

Everything started shaking again and Lance concentrated on his magic. It flew less strongly now, the strain on his potential had miraculously decreased. Why had it decreased? He didn’t remember… it was on the tip of his tongue but he didn’t remember.

It took them a while before they stopped again. This time Lance’s body was shifted around and he recognised Hunk’s arms holding him up. What about Keith? Why did Keith leave?! Lance didn't want him to leave! 

Suddenly, there was shouting. 

Lance flinched heavily and both Maria’s and Hunk’s grip on him strengthened drastically. Lance wished he had had enough strength to turn his head towards the noise but the only thing he could do was press his eyes together, ignore his deadly headache and focus on his magic. 

There was a piercing scream - _“Run!”_ \- and Lance was jostled hard. The shaking stopped again shortly after and there was a loud, booming sound, then he was lowered to the ground. Hands gripped his shoulders to keep him upright but his head fell forward. God, he really couldn’t keep this up for much longer-

“Lance?!”  


“Make him let go of the spell!” Keith’s harsh voice ordered.

“Hey Lance, it’s cool now. We’re in the room, you- you can let go now.” Let… let go? Room? But they needed to get to the crystal-

“Keith, he’s not reacting!”

“Lance!” The hands on his shoulders disappeared and Lance fell forward slightly, only to be caught anew. “Lance? Listen. We’re in the crystal room. We’re here. Your family is safe. Let go of the spell, it’s fine now.”

Oh. Oh, they were here. Lance let go and felt a weight lifting from his lungs, allowing him to finally _breathe_. Thank fuck. He really wasn’t sure how much longer he could have kept it up.

“They’re all here?” he whispered, his voice barely audible. He furrowed his brows, it wasn’t supposed to sound that weak. Keith’s hands tightened around his shoulders and he was drawn into an embrace.

“All here. Look, they’re all behind me.”  


And Lance looked. Keith spoke the truth: they were all here. His parents, his siblings, their spouses and even the baby. A baby. Lance was an uncle. The thought made him smile stupidly, even as he still hung limply in Keith’s arms. 

“Lance?”

“Yeah. I’m here. I’m good.” He turned his head to nuzzle against Keith’s neck and pressed a kiss against his skin. Keith stiffened in surprise, then carefully began to pull him off. Lance frowned at him. “What’s wrong?”

“As happy as I am that you still like my Galra-self, I think you should explain our… uh, _my_ situation to your family first,” he mumbled. Lance blinked at him, nonplussed. Then suddenly he understood.

“Oh my god! Keith! You’re _shy!_ Aww, that’s adorable!”

“I’m- what?! No, no I’m really not, I just- it’d be weird if-”

Lance grinned and let his head fall forward, his forehead softly knocking against Keith’s. He didn’t have the energy left for any flashy moves but like hell he’d let this perfect teasing opportunity slip by.

“You _are_ shy,” he cooed. “Aww, honey, it’s fine. My family will love you. You helped them escape, right? No need to worry so much!”

Keith’s nose scrunched up in distaste and Lance poked at it. He got swatted away immediately, but Keith’s embarrassed expression didn’t fade one bit. God, he was precious.

Before he could speak up again, a sharp intake of breath made him look up. Allura stood in the middle of the room, staring at the crystals that surrounded them. There was one that was glowing a bright purple right in front of her but all the others were… empty. There was a weak hum of magic coming from a few on Lance’s right side but they were mostly empty. The one in the middle was alive, but Lance could feel that something was _wrong_. It wasn’t the same comforting glow as there had been in the room when Allura had woken up. This was… this was the magic that had cursed Keith.

Lance despised it.

“What on earth happened?” Allura whispered, completely shocked. She turned around the room, the terror on her face clear as day. “There are so many! And they are- what have they-” She walked over to the empty crystals that were lining the walls, softly moving her hands over it. They regained a faint blue glow where she touched them, but it wasn’t enough. Even Lance could see that much.

“Princess,” Coran called for her. She straightened up and let go of the crystals, turning to the one in the middle. With a face that could have easily been made of stone, she pointed at it.

“We need to move it. We have to get it out of the circle, the runes are hurting it. And we have to do it fast, that way I can raise a barrier around this room and give a signal to your friends.”

Coran nodded and took a hold of the crystal. He didn’t seem to be able to lift it until he was joined by Hunk and Thace. Together, the three of them carried it over to the wall closest to Allura.

The change was immediate. As soon as the crystal left the circle of runes, a soft blue hue returned to it. Allura wasted no time to put her hands to it, making the blue glow spread out until it encompassed her completely. Lance could feel a change in the air of the room, as if it had suddenly been cleansed from evil intents.

It was beautiful.

Suddenly, there was a pulse. Lance could feel magic wash over him and instinctively knew that the barrier was up now. They were safe. They were _safe_. The last bit of tension drained from his shoulders and he let out a happy laugh. This magic felt good in all the right ways and he had full faith in Allura that she could protect them.

Allura blinked and beckoned Lance to come over. Lance could feel his eyebrows raise in surprise but did as he was told. Or well, at least he attempted to - he kind of stumbled over his own feet until Keith steadied him. Then he breathed in deeply and slowly made his way over towards Allura.

As soon as he was within reach, she extended an arm and pulled him into the soft blue glow. Lance gasped as he felt the energy trailing over his skin again and he knew that his potential was getting replenished. Curious as to how it would look like, he reached for his magic. The blue energy seeped through his skin, finding his potential and adapting to it almost immediately. It was amazing. He could his exhaustion disappear and his headache faded away.

With shining eyes he looked up at Allura. She smiled back at him and let go of his arm, allowing him to place his own hand against the crystal. The humming of magic was stronger here but different from Allura's case the crystal didn’t react to him at all.

“This is so awesome,” he breathed. This magic was incredible. He wished his own was even half as cool as this.

“It is, isn’t it? The Balmeran crystals are bound to the Altean’s life force. The only reason Coran and I are still alive is because all the crystals would completely die without us.”

“So… like those ones?” Lance asked and pointed to the empty ones against the wall. Allura grimaced but shook her head.

“Those ones are exhausted. They are not dead yet, they will regain their energy over time. Or if you lend them some of your own energy. I don’t- I don’t understand how they got so _many_ and how they exhausted them this way- it’s just cruel,” Allura said in a subdued tone. 

“The crystals are growing in the Balmeran caves. Throughout the years, Zarkon has constructed mining villages around them.”  


Both Lance and Allura whipped around to stare at Thace, who was standing near Keith in the middle of the room.

“Did you… did you just say mining villages?” Lance asked incredulously. Allura let out a horrified noise.

“They are forcing people to work in mines? They are extracting these _by force?!”_

“Yes,” Thace confirmed, an answer to all three questions. Lance caught Keith’s eyes and they shared a look. He had known that the people in the villages near the beach were looking for ‘shiny stones’, but he had never imagined them to dig out magical crystals. All this time the secret to the Galra’s magic had been right under their nose…

“I can’t believe this! What the hell!” Lance started. Keith joined him.

“You are trying to tell me that the crystals were in the _mines?_ Like, even if I hadn’t managed to lift the curse on my own we could have _used_ them?!”

“Keith, they were literally right there! This whole time!”

Lance waved his arms around and almost hit Allura in the head. She immediately twisted his arm away and pushed him out of the blue light, making him whine and clutch at his arm. It didn’t hurt too much but he hadn’t been prepared for that. What a meanie. He pouted at her but she had already returned to her crystal.

“Alright. I will now give a signal. I’ll try to make it as clear as possible but we can’t say for sure that the people will understand it. Lance, do you have any means to contact them?”

Lance kept pouting and rubbing at his arm. “No. I don’t have the water bucket here.”

“But you do have water,” Keith pointed out. Lance unconsciously reached for the bottle against his hip and shrugged.

“Yeah, but that one doesn’t mean much. In order to contact someone through water I need to place a spell over it. A two-part spell. So, the only water with which I’m able to contact Pidge or Hunk would be at home.” He frowned. “Besides, whom would I even contact? Pidge?! If Thace here spoke the truth she’s with the resistance out there. I doubt that she has carried her bucket with her all the way from home.”

Narrowing his eyes, Lance turned towards Hunk. “That reminds me. You always kept a secret from me. Did you _also_ know about the resistance?”

Hunk’s eyes went wide and he made a lot of flimsy movements. He _did_. Lance’s mouth fell open and he pointed an accusing finger at him.

“I thought we were friends! Best buds! How the fuck did you keep _the resistance_ a secret from me?! You knew exactly how much I wanted to fight the Galra!”

“That’s exactly why I kept it from you though. You do a lot of stupid stuff, Lance. And if you had the information he resistance possessed… I was scared that you’d do stupid stuff that would get you _killed_ this time,” Hunk said, wringing his hands together. 

That- yeah, okay, that made sense, but he still felt _betrayed_. Hunk was his best friend. Pidge was his other best friend. What the hell, he even was friends with Matt! And Shiro now! And no one ever told him?!

At least he wasn’t the only one. He shot Keith a sullen look and was pleased to find that he seemed to be just as unhappy about the situation as he was. 

“Alright, I gave them the signal,” Allura stated, but never let go of the crystal. Lance assumed that it was because she still had to keep the barrier up. “We really need to find out whether they got the signal though. I can’t hold this barrier up forever-” She hissed and looked towards the door. “The first Galra just reached the barrier. If the Galra break into this room before the resistance finished their attack we will all die.”  


Well. Lance swallowed. That was one way to put it. His eyes wandered over to Keith, who seemed weirdly unimpressed, and then further towards his family, who were all huddled together near the door. 

His family.

God, he needed to talk to them-

A hand around his wrist stopped him. Confusedly he turned his head, only to be met with Coran’s face. “What?!”

“You are the only one that has even the slightest chance at contacting your friends-”

“Nu-uh, I think you’re mistaking me for the princess here, I can’t call anyone without my water.” He paused, but kept talking before Coran could protest. “And without them having the _other_ side of the water. Which would mean that Pidge would have to have her bucket with her. Which is highly unlikely.”

“Actually it isn’t,” Hunk spoke suddenly. Bewildered Lance turned around to look at him. What did he mean, it wasn’t unlikely? Hunk caught his eyes and shrugged, holding out an open hand as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I mean, think about it. The resistance planned this revolution to happen soon, they just had to rush a little because of us. And how did they know that they had to rush? Someone knew that we were in trouble and you guys would come to help us - and you would have totally failed this rescue mission if it wasn’t for Thace’s help. And, uh, the help of the lady and the gentleman over here.”  


“Call me Allura,” Allura smiled. Hunk happily smiled back and turned towards Coran, who also introduced himself. Then he nodded and turned back towards Lance.

“Awesome new friends you’ve made there. Anyway, so, they knew that you would come and help us.”  


“…I guess. We called Pidge before we left to your house, but there’s no way she could have known-”

“No way?” Hunk interrupted with a raised brow. “Lance, come on. We’re talking about Pidge here. You guys call her in a panic, tell her about a Galra attack-”

“-wait, how do you know about that?!” 

Hunk winced. “Let’s just say, the Galra had a lot of fun telling us what would happen to us if you didn't show up sometime the next few days because you were killed. Not something I want to talk about right now and not important anyway. So, Pidge knows about the Galra attack, then you go to your house, no one picks up when she calls either you or us - come on, it’s pretty obvious what happened.”

Lance had to reluctantly agree with him on that. Even he could have probably made that connection. 

“But Pidge is Pidge, so she probably prepared for anything. Meaning that she assumed that you would attack the castle, then got the resistance to attack earlier and save your ass. She probably also brought her bucket with her just in case you _didn’t_ decide to attack the castle and try calling her again. It’s Pidge. It makes sense.”

Okay, that was- yeah, that was sound logic, Lance couldn’t argue against that. Still. “But all that means absolutely nothing if I don’t have my water with me,” Lance reminded him. Hunk shrugged at that. 

“I never said that. I just said that it’s actually pretty likely that Pidge brought her bucket.” Lance rolled his eyes but Allura made a delighted noise. Slightly alarmed, he turned towards her.

“What?!”

“Your water! You placed a spell on it, right? And it still holds?”

“Well, yeah,” Lance agreed. He didn’t see what she was on about. “But it’s way too far away. I can’t even get water from outside of the castle, never mind some that’s near the ocean. It’s simply impossible.”

“And that’s where you’re wrong, my friend,” Coran added himself to the mix. Lance frowned hard at him.

“I don’t think you know that much about my magic if you think I can make it fly over here.”  


“Not on your own, no, you can’t,” Coran grinned and twirled his moustache. Lance was lost, he didn’t understand what everyone was getting at. When Allura waved him over towards her, he followed without thinking about it.

“The crystals have the ability to carry magic though them. If I am connected to one of them, I am connected to all of them,” she began and nodded to her left, where one of the empty crystals suddenly began glowing again. “I can only draw magic out of the one I’m touching, but my own magic can travel through everything. All the way towards the Balmera village,” she beamed.

Lance kept staring.

“That’s… that’s cool, I guess. I still don’t see how it’s helping me though.”

“I will connect you to the crystal,” she spoke excitedly as she reached for his hand and pressed it over her own. “Then I will have the crystal project a light beam towards wherever your bucket is situated. Do you know the way from the Balmera village to your house?”

Lance licked his lips, but nodded. This was way above any level of magic he had ever performed. “I do…”  


“Good. You will travel with me but you are not able to command the crystal, so I need you to guide me. Once we are there, we will be connected to your water - and then we can draw your spell out and carry the magic all the way over here, where we can place it onto the water you are carrying with you.”

Lance stared. He tried really, really hard to understand the magic of the crystal, but it didn’t click. It was so different from his own that he didn’t even know where he to begin to list their differences. 

“Ready?!”

“Wait, what?!”  


“Go!”

Before Lance could protest any further, he suddenly was _somewhere else_. He didn’t know where he was. It was a swirling mess of energy and blue light but around them was darkness. For a moment he was terrified of getting lost, then Allura’s voice spoke right into his brain.

_‘We are at the Balmeran caves now. Once we get out of here we’ll be in the forest - which direction should I turn to?’_

_‘South. A little to the east’,_ Lance croaked out. This was weird. This was so weird and he didn’t like it one bit.

Then they were suddenly in the air, flying above the forest. Lance could feel his eyes widen, except that he didn’t have any eyes. The only thing that was here was his mind and it was terrifying. And weird.

Also, really fucking _awesome_.

He was flying! Lance could feel giddy excitement bubbling up in him when he realized how fast they were going. They would reach his house any moment now. This was awesome, they had to do it again sometime!

_‘There! There it is! That’s my house! How are we going to-’_ Lance stopped this thought when they simply broke through the roof. They were a magical light, apparently material boundaries didn’t matter for them. 

And then they reached the bucket. The moment they touched it, Lance could feel what Allura had meant with ‘drawing the magic out’. His spell was there, swirling, alive, dancing around and mingling with the water. But he himself was magic now and when he called out to it, it came flying towards him, wrapping itself happily around his body, following them all the way back to the forest, to the caves - and to the castle.

Lance gasped and opened his eyes, staring at his left hand. Golden light swirled above it, kept alive and in check by the blue glow around them.

“Put it on your water,” Allura commanded. Lance immediately followed suit, calling the water out of the bottle and touching it with the golden light. It got absorbed within moments and soon enough Lance held a tiny bit of water in his hands, now humming with his spell.

What the fuck did he just do?!

Completely and throughly in awe, Lance got out of the blue light and spread the water in the air in front of his face. “What the hell! Keith, did you see that?! I just _materialized_ my magic! This is our new bucket-call thingie!”

“Minus the bucket,” Hunk pointed out. Keith approached the water and poked at it.

“And it works?”

“Definitely,” Lance grinned. He could feel the spell, it was there. “Come over to this side and try calling Pidge.”  
So Keith did. He put his clawed hand against the surface of the water and called out for Pidge. They heard a surprised intake of breath, then suddenly a new voice was filling the room.

“Keith? Is that you?!”

“Pidge?!” he called back. Lance let out a loud laugh, this was amazing! He hadn't even known that this was possible! This was- he had to learn everything about those crystals as fast as possible! He would beg Allura to make him her student, that much was for sure.

“Oh my god, Pidge, I can’t believe this worked,” Hunk babbled. On the other side of the call Pidge let out a squeal.

“Hunk?! Hunk, what the fuck, are you with Lance and Keith? Did you already get out of there?! What the hell, how did you manage it this fast?!”

“Nope, sadly we are still locked inside the evil castle,” Lance piped up. “Turns out we ran into a Galra named Thace that wanted us to help a certain resistance movement. Weird how life works, huh?”

Instead of feeling guilty about Lance’s words, Pidge let out a loud laugh. “So what? Are you telling me that you not only managed to take the Galra’s magic away but you can now use it too? Because I’m fairly certain you’re not able to call me from just about anywhere.”

“I’m awesome and I’m insulted you thought so little of me before this,” Lance exclaimed. 

Keith stifled a laugh and added: “Actually I’m pretty sure he didn’t do shit, this was all Allura’s doing.”

“Nonononono, you’re not discrediting me like that-”

“Oh, yeah, right, you showed her _directions_ , how could I forget?” Lance narrowed his eyes at Keith and wished he could kiss him to make that stupid, shit eating grin disappear. Or just kiss him in general, they had only kissed a grand total of three times: twice on the day Keith had asked him to and once on the day they had broken into the library. Though that one was more of a peck, really. It didn’t count, as far as Lance was concerned.

Damn, now he _really_ wanted to kiss Keith.

“I showed her directions _and_ I extracted my magic! So really, the only thing Allura did was making it travel here.”  


“Which is the only thing that was complicated about it in the first place,” Keith claimed. Lance crossed his arms and leaned into his personal space.

“It is not! You know nothing about my magic, so you can just shut the fuck-”

“Uh, guys? This is not the time to fight. Please?” Hunk interrupted them. Both Lance and Keith blinked at him, then grinned. 

“Buddy, Keith and I are not fighting.”

“Not really,” Keith agreed, knocking his shoulder affectionately against Lance’s to prove his point. Hunk frowned at them, very confused.

“No. No, I’m pretty sure that what you just did-”

“It’s called bickering. You know, the thing that old, married couples sometimes do?” Pidge’s voice sounded through the water. Keith laughed openly while Lance tried to protest but honestly? He kind of liked the implications of that. He snuck a glance to Keith out of the corners of his eyes and couldn’t stop smiling at the obvious happiness he saw there.

“Kids. This is not what we were calling for,” Thace cut through their conversation. Keith stopped laughing and Lance sent Thace a glare.

“Right. We actually wanted to ask whether you guys received Allura’s signal. The signal to attack,” Keith spoke. Pidge snickered through the connection.

“If you’re asking whether we saw the gigantic, blue glowing cloud in form of a drawn sword, then yes, we most definitely did.”

A few moments of silence filled the room, then Lance began laughing uncontrollably. What the hell, Allura. He had to give it to her though, that was a pretty clear signal. Both Keith and Hunk joined his laughter soon enough and Lance decided that it was time to sit down before they all fell over. It was good to be back to laughing again with three of his most important people around.

“Why did you bring the bucket with you?” Keith asked once they had calmed down again. There was a bit of rustling, Lance assumed that Pidge had shrugged.

“I just did. Come on, we’re talking about you guys. Who knows what you were going to do. You do all sorts of stupid shit, maybe Lance would decide to bring his bucket with him to the rescue mission.”  


“That would make absolutely no sense,” Lance said condescendingly. Pidge ignored him.

“And hey, he might not have done that, but you _have_ used the bucket to get into contact with me, so nobody can say that I was completely wrong.”

Lance felt a weight against his right shoulder and turned to look at Keith. Keith was leaning against him, a tiny content smile on his face. When he became aware that he was staring, Lance quickly pressed a kiss to Keith’s hair and turned towards the water again.

“So… whatcha doing at the moment?” Hunk asked. 

“Playing board games with Matt and Shiro? I doubt anyone would allow you guys to fight,” Lance teased.

There was silence.

Wait.

“Pidge?” Lance asked suspiciously. 

“I’m here,” she answered. Keith was sitting up again, his body suddenly a lot tenser than before. Lance placed a hand against his back, trying to keep him calm.

“Where are the others?”

Pidge made a distressed noise and Lance could almost _see_ her adjusting her glasses. “I don’t- they didn’t want Matt or Shiro or me to come with them, but Shiro insisted that he had to go. Some crap about being the leader or something. And Matt immediately joined him because he thinks it’s his job to stop Shiro from doing reckless shit when he’s still getting used to being one-armed-”

Keith had gotten onto his feet and was already halfway across the room before Lance had reached out towards him. He scrambled to catch up, but Keith was already at the door, his family quickly getting out of the way of the agitated Galra.

“Keith! Keith, wait! Don’t you dare go through that door-”

Keith completely ignored him and went for the handle. It seemed to be stuck and Lance thanked every god he knew of for giving him a little time to catch up.

“Keith! You can’t go out there-”

“The fuck I can’t, Shiro’s in trouble!” Keith yelled and pulled on the door even harder than before. The handle broke off, but the door remained closed. Now that Lance was close enough, he could feel that magic was keeping it shut. He smiled gratefully at Allura before placing his hands onto Keith’s shoulders.

“Keith-”

“This is bullshit! Shiro might _die_ out there, _again_ , and it’s all because of me-”

“Oh no, we’re not doing this again,” Lance interrupted sternly and yanked him backwards. Hard. It was just strong enough to let Keith stumble back two steps, damn that Galra strength.

“But it is true! What the hell is he thinking, going out there fighting one-armed-”

“Keith! Keith, I need you to calm down for a second!”

“Calm down?! Shiro! Might! Die! Let me go!” With an angry scream, Keith suddenly kicked against the door. It gave a worrisome crack and Lance threw himself in front of it, not allowing it to be damaged any further.

_“Keith!”_

“Out of the way, Lance!”

_“Do you want to kill us all?!”_

The entire room went dead silent and Keith finally stopped attacking the door. He was still breathing heavily and trembling with tension but the look in his eyes told Lance that he at least had his attention now. Good. What the fuck, Keith.

“Listen. If you go out there, Allura will have to lower the barrier. The Galra have already started attacking the barrier so there will no doubt be soldiers waiting in front of this door. Allura will have to lower the barrier to let you out and guess what’s going to happen then? I hate to say this, but look around: you and Thace are the only fighters here. If you are gone and the barrier is down, we will all die.”

Keith’s expression had twisted up into something painful and Lance mirrored it without even noticing. He carefully placed a hand onto his shoulders, ignoring the tension there and squeezed a little. “Have a little faith in him. If he is the leader, his friends are not going to let him die that easily.”

Without another word, Keith turned away from him and made his way towards the wall on the opposite side of his family. Lance stayed rooted to the spot, not sure whether the door was out of danger or not.

“Fuck,” Keith whispered into the silent room. _“Fuck!”_ He threw a punch at the wall and Lance flinched hard. There was a noticeable dent in the stone, fine lines spreading out into every direction. Keith pulled his hand back to his body, cradling it close and sunk down onto his knees.

Lance did not want to see this.

Not wasting another thought at the door, he sprinted towards Keith and tugged at his arm. Keith resisted at first, then loosened up and let Lance take a look at his hand. It didn’t seem all that damaged and Lance realized with a start that he had held back. Oh god, he _really_ didn’t want to see Keith fighting in earnest. Or well, maybe he did, just not against him? Yeah, definitely not against him.

“Keith, it’s fine,” he whispered as he got into a crouch next to him. Lance wrapped an arm around his shoulders and drew him close. Keith followed without much resistance, even if Lance could feel how high strung he still was. “Come on, there’s not much we can do other than wait. Let’s go back to Pidge and Hunk?”

For a while Keith didn’t react, then he nodded jerkily and got onto his feet, pulling Lance up with him. He kept his expression hidden by his hair but Lance already knew what he was looking like. He had already seen it, just now, in front of the door. So he took care not to let go of his hand and forced him to sit down between him and Hunk, right in front of the water. Keeping him close, not allowing him to do anything stupid.

The room was still completely silent. Why wasn’t anyone saying anything? This wasn’t helping!

“I’m sorry,” Keith whispered finally. Lance forced a laugh and threw an arm around his shoulders, pressing himself as close as possible. Keith’s arm immediately found its way around his waist.

“No worries bud. We are all scared for him. He’s our friend too, alright?” Keith nodded almost imperceptibly, then Pidge let out a bitter laugh.

“Fucking tell me about it. When they told me that I was the only one to be left behind they almost had to chain me to the chair.” Slowly, Lance could hear small murmurs starting up again. His family picked their conversations back up and he was grateful for that. Anything to distract Keith from Shiro.

“They did?!” Hunk sounded shocked.

“No! I said _almost_ , what the hell, do you think I would actually allow them to chain me anywhere?! I just-” Pidge let out a wounded noise and Lance hated that he couldn’t be there with her. “Why Shiro? Why _Matt?_ Yeah, I get it, they are leaders and all that crap, but Shiro is still getting used to only having his left arm! His sword skills are mediocre at best. And Matt - Matt is _shit_ at fighting, he’s just not made for it at all, hell, _I_ am better with weapons than he is but he and his stupid big brother instinct- _ARGH!”_

Lance could hear something clattering to the ground and soon enough footsteps sounded through their connection. Pidge was pacing agitatedly and from the way Keith started twitching Lance knew that he wanted to join her. That was _not_ gonna happen. He wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to stop Keith a second time.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Hunk suddenly said, voice anxious, “you’re saying that Shiro and Matt aren’t good fighters at all and yet they are going to lead an attack against _Galran soldiers?!_ That’s- that’s absolutely fucking insane-”

“That’s what I told them too!”

“Okay guys, _not_ helping,” Lance interrupted them. Keith had grown so tense that Lance was sure he could be used as a better table than the stone all around them. 

“We’re here to calm down! Doesn’t anyone of you have any funny stories to tell?!”

“I’m not really in the mood for funny stories,” Hunk mumbled. Lance shot him an evil glare that he didn’t even notice.

“Which is exactly why we need them. Come on Pidge, don’t let me down here! What stupid shit did your brother do before all this insanity started?” The footsteps stopped in their tracks, then Lance could hear something scraping against the floor. When Pidge spoke next, her voice was closer to the water than before.

“I don’t know. I don’t- well, I guess there was that one time where he and Shiro were training with arrows-”

“Rejected!” Lance interrupted immediately. “We need something that _distracts_ from the situation. No weapons or Galra.”

“You just ruled everything out I did for the past week,” Pidge complained. Lance grimaced at the water.

“Come on, it can’t be that hard! Here, I’ll go first - my cranky, grumpy boyfriend loves shiny and glowy things!”  


Keith spluttered next to him and poked him in the side. It wasn’t hard but Lance yelped anyway, he still wasn’t a big fan of claws.

“I am not cranky!”

“You, my dude, are most definitely cranky. And grumpy,” Lance said and poked him back. He was elated to notice that Keith seemed at least a little bit calmer than before. “Also! His hairstyle is decidedly weird, wait until you see it!”

Hunk frowned and grabbed Keith’s shoulders to turn him around. “I don’t know what you’re saying, it looks perfectly normal to me?”

“Nonononono, that’s because you haven’t seen his _real_ hairstyle yet. Also he’s shorter than me.”

“What? No. No Lance, Keith’s definitely taller than you. By, like, half a head. It’s not even-”

Pidge’s squeal interrupted them and Lance grinned smugly at the water. Leave it to Pidge to understand the situation.

“Lance! Did you lift the curse?! That’s amazing!”

“You lifted the curse?! But then why is he- oh right, he’s a-” Lance didn’t let Hunk finish the sentence, he just draped himself all over Keith’s back and kept grinning at the water. Ah, Keith was nice and warm.

“I wish I could say that all of this was my awesome doing, but the truth is that Keith did more than I did. For once. I was told that miracles happen sometimes.”  


“For once. Miracles,” Keith deadpanned. Lance could feel him shifting beneath him but didn’t realize he was actually moving away until it was too late. He flailed and tried to stop his descent to the cold stone floor but didn’t quite manage to. Groaning, he clutched at his head and squinted up at Keith. That asshole was just grinning at him, one smug eyebrow raised.

“Was that really necessary?”

“It was most definitely necessary,” Keith confirmed. Grumbling a little, Lance pulled himself up and threw himself across Keith’s lap. For all his harsh words he immediately wrapped an arm around his chest and pulled him closer.

“Oh! I remember something!” Pidge piped up. “Since we’re talking about Keith doing stuff - remember the necklaces he made for us?”

“He made necklaces?” Hunk asked, sounding a little surprised. Lance grinned and patted Keith’s arm.

“My cranky, grumpy boyfriend doesn’t only love glowy things, it turns out that he also has a reaaaally soft spot for people he considers his friends. He made seashell necklaces for everyone. You got one too, though it’s still at home. We’ll get it as soon as we’re out of here.” 

“Lance, I swear to-”

“Aww, that’s so nice of you!” Hunk interrupted Keith. All of a sudden Lance’s head was squished between Hunk’s and Keith’s belly, he couldn’t _breathe_ , what the fuck. Still, he laughed. It was nice to see everyone getting along and forgetting about their worries for a moment. He just wished that he got a warning next time before Hunk decided to hug Keith, he wanted to actually participate and not just get squashed between them.

“I- uh, you’re welcome,” Keith mumbled uncertainly. Lance couldn’t help but laugh harder, worming his arms between Hunk and Keith to get some air. Hunk begrudgingly let go of him and as Keith was still sitting hunched over, Lance took the opportunity to ruffle his hair.  


“You’re adorable! You’re _pouting_ , would you look at that!” Keith’s - honestly really adorable - pout transformed into a glare but Lance couldn’t care less. “Man, now I wished that your hair was longer, can you imagine how much more adorable you’d look like if it stuck up into-”

“Riiiight, back on topic guys!” Pidge exclaimed. “I still have a story to tell!”  


Lance perked up and let go of Keith’s hair. “Shoot. Did you destroy your necklace already?”

“Pidge, that’s not very nice,” Hunk scolded her. Pidge made a noise in mock outrage.

“Destroy a necklace from my first half-galran friend?! Yeah right. No, what I wanted to say is that Matt is totally jealous. Shiro got one and I got one - and they are super pretty but he doesn’t have one. It’s the perfect teasing material, thanks Keith!”

Keith choked a little. God, he was really cute when he was embarrassed. “I guess- I mean, you’re welcome?”

“Alright, enough of teasing Keith, how about we tease Lance instead? I remember that one time where he wanted to prove to us that he’s friends with every creature of the ocean and the crab almost cut his finger off!”  


Lance spluttered and tried to sit up to properly glare at Hunk but Keith’s arm kept him in place. He tugged at it to make him let go, but Keith didn’t budge at all. Shooting him a betrayed look, Lance settled for crossing his arms instead. Mean.

Pidge’s loud laughter sounded through the water. “Oh my god, yeah, I remember that! Or Hunk, do you remember how he used to talk about Keith?!” 

Lance squeaked in terror and tugged at Keith’s arm again. This wasn’t happening. “Pidge! Shut up, I’ll cut the connection-”

“Oh yeah, I remember that alright. ‘Hunk, he’s so pretty!’ ‘Hunk, you don’t understand, his smile is the most beautiful thing I’ve never seen! It could cure any illness in seconds!’ ‘Hunk, his ass-’”

_“Stop!”_ Lance exclaimed horrified, still struggling against Keith’s hold. Keith was looking down at him with raised eyebrows and Lance wished he could die already. This wasn’t what he had had in mind when he had talked about distracting themselves.

“What? It’s the truth!”  


“Don’t tell him!” Lance waved his arms around and pressed one of his hands against Keith’s face. “It’s private! _Private!”_

“But you guys are together now, right?” Pidge asked smugly. Fuck her, why was he even friends with her?!

Keith pulled Lance’s hand from his face and grinned down at him. “Now that I think about it, I probably should have expected that. You did say that you thought my hair made me look hot, after all.” 

Lance groaned and slapped his free hand against his face to hide his blush. This was mortifying. He didn’t want this anymore. Enough already.

Warm laughter filled the air around him, but he stayed hidden until Keith finally let go of his arm and torso to pull him up into a hug. He even pressed a kiss against Lance’s cheek! Lance was low-key thrilled. Honestly, if a little teasing got him Keith’s affection, then he could deal with it. He still complained and hid his head in Keith’s neck, but he didn’t move out of his place on Keith’s lap. It was way too comfortable here.

After that, the conversation thankfully moved on to other topics. Pidge explained to them how the battle in the castle looked from the outside and Keith, Hunk and Lance gave a brief summary of how they ended up in the crystal room. The situation might have been less than ideal, but Lance knew that _most_ of his friends were safe for the moment and he convinced himself to be fine with that. It was enough. It had to be enough. He had his family back!

Whenever there was a lull in the conversation, Lance looked over at his family. He really, really wanted to go talk to them but leaving Keith was out of the question. And taking Keith with him? Explaining Keith’s situation - _their_ situation, really - would take too much time. Technically that was a good thing right now, they had nothing to do but to sit and wait anyway, but he didn’t want anything to go wrong in their introduction. And as tense as they all were he didn’t want to take unnecessary risks.

Besides, it couldn’t be that much longer anymore. Soon there would be other sounds than Galra attempting to break the barrier around the room. Soon the resistance would have succeeded in taking over the castle. Soon there would be no more evil Zarkon reigning over this country. Soon Shiro would be back.

For now, they could do nothing but to sit, wait and comfort each other. Distract each other. Send each other smiles and thumbs up across the room.

And they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, that was the last real chapter of this story! Next time there's gonna be the epilogue and everyone's gonna be alive and happy, promise :D (congrats if you made it to the end of this long-ass chapter.........let me tell you that i love you if you did)
> 
>  
> 
> Still here? Want to know about Lance's family? Here is the plan I had for them:
> 
> Mom - water, fire  
> Dad - wind, earth  
> Tristan (25) - earth, sound MARRIED TO: Alya (23) - wind, water DAUGHTER: Zoe - sound, fire  
> Becca (23) - light, earth MARRIED TO: Jay (22) - fire, light  
> Maria (20) - light, water  
> Lance (19) - water, wind  
> Elena (15) - sound, fire  
> Jim (13) - wind, fire
> 
>  
> 
> Also! Chapter 7 and chapter 10 now got art, if you want to take a look at it, I put the links in the endnotes of their respective chapters^^


	12. The Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue - a lot of different scenes set in the immediate and distant future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh. Yeah. Another really long chapter but it's like 90% fluff, so it should be fine :D

Keith was on edge. He almost felt a physical _need_ to throw the door open. He understood that Allura wanted to keep the barrier up until she was absolutely sure that it was safe outside - but Pidge had just gotten the message that the fight was won. As good as won. Apparently they hadn’t found Zarkon yet but there were virtually no Galran fighters anymore. Pidge had sent the messenger back to the castle with the order to find the crystal room and knock against the barrier three times in quick succession, so really, it was only a matter of time now.

Damn, why couldn’t the messenger walk any faster?

That is, _if_ they were actually safe now. Maybe the messenger wouldn’t arrive at all because he got killed beforehand. Virtually no fighters left wasn’t the same thing as absolutely no fighters left. Keith hoped that they got rid of the remaining soldiers quickly, Allura looked kind of exhausted and he didn’t want to think about what it would mean for Shiro.

God. Fuck. Shiro was somewhere out there.

Lance, who had wandered over to his family at some point, now joined him at the door. Keith grimaced, it could only mean that he had made a worried expression again. It had taken him a while to convince Lance to finally go talk to his family like he knew he wanted to and now he had left them again.

“Hey. You cool?”

“Absolutely fine,” Keith pressed out. He calmly put his hand against the wood, willing the messenger to hurry up already. The tension was killing him. A warm arm snuck around his waist and Keith tried not to focus too much on it. “You should be going back to your family.”

“Pfft, don’t spout nonsense, I’ll have them back for good in a few minutes now. You’re the one that is in dire need of my healing and delightful presence.”

Keith could feel a chuckle raising up in his chest against his will. What the fuck, Lance. He leaned against him, his claws never leaving the door and listened to Lance’s calm breathing. “Healing and delightful presence?”

“You know it,” Lance grinned and pressed a kiss against his temple. Just when he was about to follow Lance’s silent urging to leave the door, Allura suddenly spoke up.

“Someone knocked! I will now let go of the barrier. Lance, get back. Keith, Thace, I need you two at the front in case the Galra found out about the signal and set up a trap. You other humans, get as far back as possible.”

Everyone scrambled to follow her orders and Keith could feel his muscles tensing. Alright. This would either be victory or another gruesome fight. 

Keith desperately wished for victory.

“Ready? Go!”

At Allura’s voice Keith kicked the door open. One of the upper hinges broke but Keith couldn’t care less about that. It was just a door. If they needed to fight Galra back it wouldn’t have been of much help anyway.

In front of him were three people. Two he had never seen before and one-

“Shiro,” he breathed out. Relief washed over him, threatening to make his knees buckle. Shiro was okay, Shiro was alive. Why did he always have to do stupid heroic shit? Keith wasn’t sure whether he wanted to hug or punch him.

Shiro looked kind of alarmed for a second, then the beginning of a smile became visible. He was _okay_. Keith decided that he could punch him later, he would settle for a hug now. Not giving Shiro any warning, he ran towards him and crushed into him. It was a hug that was pretty similar to the one he had given Lance two days ago, one that was almost too tight and painful to be considered comfortable.

“Keith,” Shiro laughed. Keith could hear something metallic falling to the ground, a sword probably, then an arm settled around him. He breathed out and just basked in the relief of knowing that Shiro was safe.

Shiro was safe.

That meant they all were.

“What the fuck, Shiro, just- what the fuck,” Keith mumbled, finally letting up a bit. He looked down at Shiro and was surprised to find that he wasn’t as angry as he thought. Yes, he had kept the resistance a secret from him and yes, that stupid fucking overprotective _idiot_ had decided to run headfirst into battle with only one arm left - but he was alive, he was still here. He would be angry later. Maybe.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro offered. He sounded genuinely sorry, even if he didn’t elaborate about what. Keith assumed it was about everything, that’s just the kind of guy Shiro was.

“You don’t get to tell me not to do reckless stuff and break into Zarkon’s castle if you do it yourself!” Keith chided.

For a moment Shiro just seemed surprised at his words, then a happy grin made its way over his face. “Well, it isn’t _Zarkon’s_ castle for long anymore, so I don’t think we’ll have that problem again. But I promise not to keep any… big secrets anymore, okay?”

Something in Keith wanted to protest that that wasn’t enough, that he wanted him to swear to be completely honest about everything from now on, but it wasn’t as if Shiro had ever lied to him. He just hadn’t told him about everything. And he wasn’t the only one that had done that: After all this time Keith still hadn’t told Shiro about the psychological torture the witch had put him through. 

It was okay though, he supposed. For those kinds of secrets he still had Lance. And Shiro had Matt. He could live with Shiro’s new promise.

Turning his head a little, Keith tried to figure out which one of the guys that had accompanied Shiro was Matt. None of them looked particularly similar to Pidge.

“Where’s Matt?”

Shiro’s grin turned sheepish and he let go of Keith, only leaving his hand on his shoulder. “Passed out in the woods.”  


“He… what?” Keith was confused, to say the least. Shiro grimaced a little.

“Matt insisted on fighting with us. I had to give in but… he wouldn’t have survived the fighting. I knocked him out and left him the woods. Don’t worry, one of the younger recruits is taking care of him.”

Keith stared at Shiro. Shiro stared back. At least Keith could say that Shiro’s protective streak didn’t just extend to him and Lance. He kind of wanted to punch him again. What was he _doing_ , protecting everyone but himself?!

Thace was the one that broke the silence. “I am glad you did. Matthew was very determined to follow you here, even if he had to have known that his actions would most likely end in his death.”

Shiro sighed and let his hand fall away. “He was and he did. I hope the recruit managed to bring him to a safe place. He’s going to have quite a headache when he wakes up…” Keith still wasn’t quite over his urge to hit him - or at least shake him - to make him see that his actions didn’t make any sense but he pushed it aside for now. He had questions. About the resistance, about-

“Did you guys at least manage to secure the castle?” he asked, arms crossed. Shiro’s smile faded and he nodded grimly.

“We did. And we… we couldn’t find the witch.” A pause. “I’m sorry, Keith.”

Shiro sounded so sad that it took Keith quite a while to process what he was saying. “Sorry?” For what?

“All those books. I…” Shiro sighed and carded his hand through his hair. “Lance didn’t manage to break your curse by force and now we can’t even force the- Keith?”

Keith had started laughing. It was honest, happy laughter and he threw his head back with it. So much had happened these past few hours that the lifted curse had barely even crossed his mind anymore. But Shiro, overprotective as ever, had been thinking about it all along.

“I’m fine,” he wheezed and forced his laughter to die out. He almost couldn’t believe that it was all over. They had taken the magic from the Galra, he had returned to normal. Lance had his family back, he could live with them again. Shiro was alive. There were still some Galra out there but Thace’s very existence proved that not everyone of them was necessarily on Zarkon’s side.

They could change the country. Take it back, change their lives.

“I’m- I’m completely fine, Shiro, look!” He spread his arms in an admittedly Lance-like manner and focused on pulling his skin in. His eyes had slipped shut but he had never stopped smiling. When he heard a sharp gasp, Keith opened his eyes again, suddenly a lot shorter than before.

“That’s - your curse is broken?” Shiro asked disbelievingly. Just when Keith wanted to answer him, someone else barrelled into his back.

“Completely and utterly! I almost couldn’t believe how pretty he is, why did you never tell me?!” Lance exclaimed from behind. Keith rolled his eyes at the interruption but put his arms over Lance’s, keeping him in place. He liked feeling Lance’s warm skin through his shirt. “Except for his hair. That’s a crime, Shiro, how could you let him walk around like that?”

“Are we really going there again? Do I have to remind you _again_ of how much you said you liked it just four days ago? Of how _hot_ it made me look?” Keith wanted to twist his face to look at Lance but Shiro’s blush stopped him. For some reason he seemed really embarrassed… Keith went over his own words again and could feel himself flush too.

_“Shiro!”_

“What?” Lance’s confused voice sounded from behind. Then he was suddenly laughing. “Oh my god, Shiro, what are you _thinking_ about?!”

“This is all Matt’s fault,” Shiro said miserably and covered his face with his hand. 

“Matt?”

“I can assure you, Keith is still completely untouched and pur-”

_“I don’t want to talk about it.”_

This time, Keith joined Lance’s laughter. There was so much relief flooding his system, he felt as if he would faint any moment now. The only thing that was keeping him grounded were Lance’s arms around his shoulders.

They were okay. They were all going to be okay.

 

* * *

 

Thace had been looking for hours. He had asked every living Galran soldier he had come across, he had even spoken to Commander Sendak, but no one seemed to know where Zarkon or Haggar were.

It was almost evening now. The resistance had reached the crystal room early in the morning and they had spent every moment until midday making sure that the castle would stay under their control. Thace had helped identifying soldiers that would support the resistance, those that would never listen to anyone but Zarkon and those that might be reasoned with. They had been put into different rooms for princess Allura to deal with later.

At midday, the humans had looked ready to pass out so they had been assigned a few rooms to sleep in. Everyone that could still stand had helped carry the dead bodies away and wipe blood off the hallways. It was dirty work and Thace despised getting reminded of the violence that had taken place here while he had been locked up in the crystal room. He could have been out here to help! But it was too late now, so he focused on the things he could help with.

Once everything had been cleared away, he had set out on his mission to find Zarkon. Zarkon was their one true enemy, as long as he was still alive, this country would still be suffering. He hardly ever left the throne room but Thace had been informed that it had been empty aside from a mountain of ashes when the resistance had reached it.

So where was he?

Nobody seemed to know.

Glendor, one of the personal guards of Zarkon, had sworn that he had never left the room. But he wasn’t there. Naturally his first instinct had been to search for Haggar - Zarkon’s right hand, his trusted advisor, the only other Galra that had been alive for as long as he had. But no one had seen her either.

What was going on?

For now, he decided to go back to report to the princess.

Knocking firmly against the open door to announce his presence, Thace waited for Allura to raise her head from the makeshift discussion table. She saw his expression and excused herself, making her way towards him.

“Did you find anything?” He almost felt bad for bothering her, she sounded exhausted. She deserved a break more than anyone. But it had been her wish to help everyone restore some kind of order in the castle and the country. Allura was a princess and felt as if it was her duty to protect her country, he respected that.

“Nothing, princess,” he answered honestly. “Zarkon’s personal guard insists that he had never left the throne room. We even checked the secret door you told us about but it seems to have been untouched for years, it wouldn’t even open anymore.”

“And magic can’t be the thing keeping it closed. The stone probably deformed itself over the years,” Allura completed his thoughts. He nodded. 

“If Glendor is speaking the truth, Zarkon didn’t leave the throne room through the front door. But he didn’t use the secret door either. None of the windows were damaged, the only thing in the entire room was a pile of ashes.”

Suddenly Allura seemed to perk up. “A pile of ashes?”

“Yes.” Thace kept his voice even. “None of us can make any sense out of it. There are no torches in the throne room and we know for a fact that there was nothing to burn that would leave such a huge pile. It almost seems as if Zarkon burned himself.”

A grim smile stretched over Allura’s face. “I didn’t even consider that possibility. But now that you mention it, it makes sense.”  


“Pardon me?” Thace didn’t see where it made sense. There was no way Zarkon burned himself to death.

“The only thing that held Zarkon alive for thousands of years was magic. When we took it from the Galra, he returned to what he should look like now. I assume no one could find the witch either?”

A little numb from surprise, Thace just shook his head.

Zarkon was dead. 

They were free.

 

* * *

 

As soon as the lid was open, Lance almost downed his head into the water in his hurry to check on the jellyfish. 

They were fine. Oh thank god, they were fine.

“Lan-” Keith began in a questioning tone, but Lance cut him off excitedly.

“They are still here! Look at them! Happy and alive as always!! I’m so proud of my babies, aww, they survived despite all the loneliness! So brave! Now I really want to pet them all!”

Lance could hear Keith’s exaggerated sigh but paid him no mind. He quickly lifted the jellyfish out of the barrel, checking the temperature. It was bordering on uncomfortably warm, something that wasn’t surprising considering they were in a house at the beach. He cooled it down until it was back to normal and went to grab his pouch full of brine shrimp. 

“Are you excited to have big bro Lance back?! I’m sure you are! And look, even uncle Keith is here,” he cooed as he threw a few shrimp into the water. The jellyfish kept swimming lazily, not seeming to care either way. 

“They can’t even understand you, do you have to be so embarrassing?” Keith complained. Lance glared at him in mock outrage.

“Excuse you?! You’re cold, Keith, ice cold. I am showing how much I care. They missed me, I know they did!” He separated some of the jellyfish water, using it to quickly clean his hand and then flung it out of the window. He would have to get some new water from the ocean later. For now he really wanted to touch his pets though, so he stuck his hand into the water orb. Leader was the first one to pass him and he wasted no time petting it. Still as slimy as ever. Good.

Keith groaned again and Lance heard him place the lid on the table. “I know I’m gonna regret asking this, but for how long are you going to stand there?”

“Hm. The whole day?” Lance offered. A shit eating grin made its way onto his face when he heard a slap that could just mean one thing: Keith had face palmed himself. As he did so often. “They missed me,” he repeated, shifting his ministrations of affection from Leader to Prince, “so I can’t deny them this comfor- oh my god, Keith!”

“What?” Keith asked warily. Lance threw a wide eyed look over his shoulder and waved at him to come closer. Keith did. “So?”

“You never actually _really_ got to pet them! You know, with your hands! Last time you had to be super careful because of your claws, but now-” Lance ignored Keith’s fake groan and pulled him closer. He followed without much resistance and held his own hand up for cleaning. Lance smirked, Keith _totally_ wanted to pet them again. He didn’t say anything though, he just cleaned his hand and guided it to the water.

“Now just put your hand in there. Remember, you’re only allowed to touch the upper part. And no squeezing!” 

Keith playfully shoved him with his elbow. “I might have better things to do with my time than petting jellyfish for hours but that doesn’t mean I want to kill them!”

“You suuuure?” Lance drawled and not-so-sneakily wrapped his left arm around Keith’s shoulders. He smiled to himself, that was exactly how they had stood last time they had done this. A vague thought about Keith’s eyes being pretty popped up again and he pressed a kiss against his head. Keith turned towards him, obviously surprised, but didn’t comment on it. Instead he just leaned more into Lance.

“Yeah, pretty sure.” With these words, Keith finally put his hand into the sphere of water. Lance watched as he touched Alga, smiling at the way his face first scrunched up in disgust before transforming into something unwillingly interested. “They still feel weird.”  


“Of course they do, they are jellyfish!” Lance said happily. He used a tiny bit of magic to make Prince swim over to Keith, smiling even harder when he saw recognition lighting up his features. Keith totally adored them. Didn’t he do a wood carving of them, even? Lance had never seen the finished version.

“…I wonder what the others are doing right now,” Keith said after a while. Lance just shrugged and pulled him closer.

“It’s their fault that they couldn’t wait for us to get the jellyfish before holding their party! We will hold another one once we’re back. I bet they’re missing us.”

 

* * *

 

Pidge stared down at herself, swallowing a little. Her heart was pounding with excitement and she wasn’t quite sure why. It was pathetic, really. But she couldn’t really help it.

It had been such a long time since she had last been able to wear a dress.

Putting her arms out to the sides, she tried to get a look at her back. It was impossible, she had no idea whether she had managed to tie it properly. She would have to get her mom.

Careful not to let her dress be seen, she stuck her head into the adjacent room and called out for her mother. “Mom? You there?”

“I’m here, Katie. What’s wrong?” Her mother looked up from her conversation with Allura, Matt and Shiro. Her father was away, she was pretty sure that he was talking to Hunk about something. Or was it Coran? Maybe the two of them.

“Sorry. I need your help. Can you check whether this thing I’m wearing won’t fall off after five seconds? I’m pretty sure I tied it wrong.” Both her mother and Matt chuckled. She sent him an evil glare. “You don’t get a say in this, you’ve never tied a dress in your life.”  


“I didn’t even say anything! Did I, Shiro?”

“Leave me out of this,” Shiro grinned. Pidge squinted at him, she wasn’t sure what to make of his reply. Was he on her side or not?

“I will help you,” Allura suddenly said. Blinking a little, Pidge rested her eyes on her. Then she swallowed.

“Uh, I mean, sure? If you don’t mind?” It was a little wild that Allura would want to help her. Everything about Allura just _screamed_ royalty, it was still weird to interact with her sometimes. But hey, who was she to reject such an offer? Allura seemed the type to know a lot about dresses.

“Of course I don’t,” Allura smiled kindly. She excused herself from the conversation and made her way into Pidge’s room. “Turn around?”

Pidge complied, allowing her to take a look at her backside. The princess didn’t do anything for the longest time and Pidge felt herself shifting a little. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m trying to figure out how you turned such a simple dress into this mess,” Allura answered, sounding flaggerbasted. Pidge couldn’t help it, she cracked up.

“Call it a natural talent. I don’t exactly have a lot of experience with all of this and my short arms are no help.” She awkwardly waved her hand at her back, then let it drop again. Ah, how she despised her useless short arms. Craning her head a little, she tried to get another look at her back, but to no avail. 

“Alright. No problem, I can solve this,” Allura said. She sounded like Lance did when he tried to psyche himself up for something that he considered impossible. A smirk made its way onto her face.

“Don’t try to hard or your fingers might get tied up in there too,” Pidge teased. Allura bristled. 

“You have no faith in me! I will show you, just be patient.”  


“Please do,” Pidge muttered back. Then she moved over to a tiny table, resting her elbows on it. If Allura would take a long time to untangle the mess she had made, she might just as well prepare herself for the wait.

A few long moments later, the dress was finally tied the way it was supposed to be. She thanked Allura and watched her confidently stride back into the other room, most likely to get everyone ready to leave for the party. They had only been waiting for her, after all.

Good. Now the only thing she had to do was leave the room.

Pidge could feel her hands getting sweaty and she looked down at herself. It was weird to see her chest again, feel air between her thighs again. It was weird… to be a girl again.

Not a bad thing. Definitely not a bad thing. Just different.

How would the others react?

“Katie?” her mother’s voice sounded through the door. She inhaled one last time, trying to push up glasses that weren’t even there anymore, then answered her.

“I’m coming!”

At least her voice didn’t betray her nerves.

Insecure, she opened the door fully and stepped out for everyone to see. No one said anything. Well, why would they? They had known she was a girl all along, after all. Still, it wasn’t exactly a good feeling. But when she raised her head, only smiling faces met her.

“You look pretty,” Shiro offered. She could feel an answering smile forming on her face.

“Thanks.”  


“You really are beautiful! That dress was an excellent choice, it suits you well,” her mother said. Pidge could feel her smile growing and discreetly wiped her hands on the fabric.  


“Thanks!”

“There she is again! My baby sister is back!” Matt exclaimed happily, giving her a thumbs up. Finally, Pidge started laughing. Really, why had she even worried about their reactions at all? 

“Shut up, nerd. I was never really gone,” she grinned, making her way over to the door. Now it was time to party. With or without dress, she was going to enjoy their victory over Zarkon.

Matt caught up to her easily, catching the door she held open for him and holding it long enough for Allura to pass through. “No, you weren’t. Still, isn’t it weird to wear a dress again? It’s been such a long time since I saw you in one,” he said, falling in step with her. Pidge shrugged.

“It kind of is. But it’s not a bad weird. I think I still prefer pants but it’s nice to have a choice again,” she smiled. Matt laughed.

“Of course you would. Hauling wood around is would be kind of difficult in a dress, wouldn’t it?”

“Puh-lease. You know that it wouldn’t be a problem if I really wanted to,” she bragged. It was true though. And they both knew it.

“Alright, little genius. Whatever you say.”

 

* * *

 

Keith made a face at all the stuff in front of him. Allura had convinced them to move into the castle - not that it had taken a lot of time to convince them. She needed help to rebuild it and didn’t want the hallways to feel empty, so for now Lance’s entire family stayed here too. Oh, and Hunk with his family. And Pidge and hers. And Shiro.

So, really, it wasn’t a question at all. Of course they would move into the castle.

It had taken them a week to get the jellyfish and everything else that Lance insisted he needed to keep to the castle. Keith could have crossed the distance in four days but they had been forced to walk on their way back since Keith hadn’t been able to carry Lance. Instead he had carried _tons_ of books. He wasn’t even sure why Lance wanted to keep them! Lance didn’t like books, had already read them all _and_ was currently Allura’s student, he had no need for them!

But here he was now, in the middle of what was about to become their room. Lance was out for his first lesson ever and he had trusted Keith to put their stuff away. He was pretty sure that he only did that because he didn’t want to help but Keith didn’t mind it too much. That way he could at least find his own things again.

Alright, so. Clothes went into the wardrobe. Keith started sorting them into two halves, one for him and one for Lance, before giving up and sorting them after clothing instead. Shirts up high, pants in the middle, underwear all the way down. Lance would have probably mixed their halves up within three days anyway, so this was fine.

Next he decided on a good spot for the jellyfish. Allura had offered to put them into the main hall or in what had once been the crystal room - it was where she and Lance would have their magic lessons from now on - but Lance had refused. He wanted to keep them close, he had said.

Close? Well, next to the bed it was, then. Keith smiled at the thought of them cuddling at night while they were watching the jellyfish float around in front of them. It was a nice image.

After he had carefully moved the barrel over there, he took a look at the books. He wasn’t sure in what kind of order to put them, so he just decided to stick them randomly on the shelves lining the right wall. If Lance didn’t like it, he could always change them around again. 

Keith had just finished putting all of Lance’s weird treasures - jars, stones, herbs, _was that a starfish?!_ -onto the table, when suddenly realization hit him.

It was their room.

_Their_ room.

They were going to live _together_ now.

A wide grin stretched itself over his face and he hid it behind his hand. _Their_ room. They were a thing now, they were going to live together. They would go to sleep together, get up together, walk to breakfast together. _Together_.

Keith could feel his heartbeat picking up a little, his grin as blinding as never before. “What the fuck, Keith, you’re pathetic,” he whispered to himself. _Yeah, pathetically in love_ , his brain whispered back.

God. He _was_ pathetically in love.

He was kind of glad that Lance wasn’t here right now. He was sure that he would have never heard the end of his blush. 

Keith had just managed to subdue his grin into a soft smile, when he came across the wood carving he had given to Lance. Looking at it now, he could have done much better. He had even told Lance as much when Lance had said that he wanted to bring it to the castle. But Lance had refused his words, insisting that it was important and special because it was the first gift Keith had ever given to him.

His grin returned full force and he uncaringly threw himself onto the bed. Staring at the ceiling, he asked it a very important question that he still hadn’t found the answer to: “Lance, you asshole. Who gave you the right to be this cute?” 

The answer never came, but Keith figured that it didn’t matter much either way. He loved Lance. Lance loved him. Everything was fine this way, illegally cute or not.

 

* * *

 

“You look ready to die,” Lance teased his boyfriend and shot him a sly smirk. He just got a dark scowl as a response. Talk about grumpy. What had him so worried?

Keith suddenly looked away and grumbled something under his breath. Lance frowned, leaning closer to catch what he was saying. “What?”

“I said. Maybe I am,” Keith repeated, just slightly louder than before. Lance couldn’t help it, he started laughing. 

“What?!”

“Oh my god, Keith, it’s really not that bad. They are my _family_. They have already seen us being all lovey-dovey together in the crystal room. You even were in your Galra from back then and no one has killed you yet! Come on, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Lance grinned, amused beyond measure. He really couldn’t see why Keith was so worried. “It’s gonna be fine!”

“If they are going to kill anyone, it’s not going to be you,” Keith pointed out dryly. Lance couldn’t help the new wave of laughter threatening to overwhelm him.

“I’m so gonna remember that! I’ll tell everyone you said that after they officially adopted you into the family.” Keith made a small, wounded noise and Lance pressed a kiss against his head. “No, but seriously. It’s gonna be fine, trust me. I already told them about the whole half-Galra thing, everyone understands. It’s _fine_.”

Lance could feel Keith sighing and melting against him. “Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever. Let’s just get this over with.” A snort made its way out of his nose and he bumped his hips against him.

“You’re being so dramatic about this!”

“I’m the dramatic one? You’re the one that always insists on showing me new flashy magic tricks because they are apparently life-changing.”  


“And they are,” Lance claimed while opening the door to the common room. Usually the room was crowded with people but Lance had asked Allura to reserve it for his family today. He hadn’t wanted to make Keith uncomfortable by forcing him to meet his family in front of tons of other people. But sneaking a glance at him, he suddenly asked himself whether that would have been a better idea after all. Meeting them like this didn’t give Keith a chance to take a break and retreat into neutral territory. Oh well, what was done was done. No use dwelling on things.

Besides, he firmly believed in what he had told him. It was going to be fine. They were just his family.

As soon as the door was open, lots of noise greeted him. His parents were talking to Maria in one corner of the room, Tristan and Jim were kinda-sorta fighting over what seemed to be a flower. Alya had gotten Elena to take care of her baby daughter - Zoe - and was in deep conversation with Becca and Jay. 

Lance smiled.

Becca was the first one to take notice of him. “Lance!” And suddenly the entire room had turned towards the door, eagerly waiting for him to come in. He put on his most blinding smile and spread his arms.

“Missed me, everyone? Your most awesome family member just appeared! Wanna know what cool stuff Allura told me about today?”

Lots of collective groans and faked loud conversations started up again. Rude. All of them, just plain rude.

“Hello? Isn’t anyone interested in me anymore?” he whined. Something hit him in the face and he spluttered, trying to get it off him until he realized that it was the flower Tristan and Jim had been fighting about. 

“Get back to where you came from!” Tristan shouted at him. Lance ignored his words and waggled his eyebrows at the plant.

“Why, thank you, flowers before the performance? You must hold me in high regards! I’m flattered!” More groans from all around the room followed, letting Lance know that people were still listening to him. Awesome. He could also most definitely see the way more than half of them were trying to stifle their laughter.

“But enough of me. I brought you all here to introduce my-” he wrapped his right arm around Keith’s waist, dragging him out of his hiding place behind the door and against his side “-super awesome boyfriend. Oh look, what a coincidence, I even have a flower for you!” The last part he had spoken to Keith, holding the violet flower right in front of his face. Just to complete his act, he also shot him a wink. Keith’s face scrunched up in embarrassment, whether it was because of him or because of his family’s laughter Lance would never know, but he took the flower anyway.

Adorable.

His family let out a collective “awww” and Keith hid his face behind the plant. Lance laughed and pressed a kiss against his temple. Pretending to nuzzle against his hair, he brought his mouth near Keith’s ear. “I’m telling you, it’s cool. Relax. You’re gonna be fine. They _will_ love you,” he murmured. Keith nodded almost imperceptibly and finally straightened himself out, apparently ready to face them.

Lance was right.

They loved him.

 

* * *

 

Matt was walking the hallways, deep in thoughts about how to most efficiently move their tools and equipment permanently to the castle, when a voice stopped him.

“Pidge! Hey Pidge, have you seen-” He turned around and smiled questioningly. It had happened quite a few times already that people had mixed them up from behind, even if Katie sometimes wore dresses now. The thought of his sister made his smile that much more genuine.

A young man with long, dark hair stood in front of him and awkwardly closed his mouth mid-sentence. Matt gave a forced laugh. “I, uh, if you’re looking for my sister-”

“No! I, uh. I was- I’m assuming you’re Matt? Matt Holt?”

A little confused Matt blinked, but nodded. He was sure that he had never seen this guy before in his life. Then again, this happened quite often these days too. As one of the former leaders of the resistance a lot more people knew his name than the other way around.

And no. That was not because he was bad with names. It might have… factored into it but it didn’t make that much of a difference. In most cases anyway. But definitely not here.

“Yeah, I am. Did you want something?” he asked kindly. The man before him scrunched his face up and shook his head.

“No, no, I- actually I wanted to give you something-” He stopped talking to reach into a tiny pouch that he carried on his belt. Curious, Matt tried to catch a glimpse of what was inside but he didn’t see anything.

“Give me something?”

“Yeah, I- hang on, here.” The man carefully pulled something out of the pouch and held it out for him to take. Matt approached him and let the object fall into his hands, more than a little surprised when it turned out to be a bunch of shells on a cord. He blinked down at them, unsure what to do with them.

“Uh… am I, I don’t know, am I supposed to do something with these?”

The man stared blankly back at him before a deep blush overtook his features. If Matt hadn’t been this confused, he might have been concerned for him. As it was he just really didn’t know what to do with these. Or who the guy even was.

“That’s, um. A necklace. Pidge said you didn’t have one yet and… I didn’t. Well, I didn’t want you to feel left out, I guess? You don’t have to keep it, obviously.” Slowly the pieces connected in his head. “Ah. I’m Keith,” the man said finally.

It clicked.

Matt grinned widely and shifted the necklace from his right hand to his left. “Keith! It’s nice to finally meet you! I’m Matt, but I said that much already,” he laughed. Keith took his extended hand and shook it firmly. 

“Yeah. Nice to meet you.” He still sounded decidedly awkward and Matt took pity on him. Drawing his hand back, he spread the necklace out for the both of them to see. It was beautiful.

“It’s amazing!” he grinned. “Now I’m finally a member of the cool kids club. Thank you so much! Did you tell Katie about this already?” Keith seemed lost and Matt quickly corrected himself. “Pidge. Did you tell Pidge about this already?”

“Uh. No?” Keith answered uncertainly. Matt beamed.  


“Awesome! Now I can finally get back at her for all the times she didn’t stop teasing me about the necklaces.” Finally, _finally_ some of the tension seemed to seep out of Keith’s body. Matt didn’t like making people uncomfortable. Keeping his smile on his face, he put the necklace on. He held one of the shells up, admiring it. “Wow, they really are pretty. You’re pretty good at this, huh?”

“Thanks? I try,” Keith responded. Matt let the shell drop down and focused on him again.

“They look really good. Say, did you have something to do right now? I was actually just meeting with Shiro to discuss moving our family’s stuff into the castle, you could join us.” _Please join us_ , he tacked on in his mind. It seemed as if everyone he knew was friends with Keith and he had never even had a proper conversation with him. He hadn’t even known what he looked like before today. Luckily for him, Keith seemed to be in a similar situation. He shrugged.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Cool! Didn’t you and Lance just move into the castle last week? How did you do it?”

Their conversation began to flow naturally and Matt felt at ease.

 

* * *

 

It was dark in their room and Keith had comfortably placed his arms around Lance. His chest was pressed to Lance’s back as they silently watched the jellyfish floating around in front of them. No matter how often they did this, it never failed to make Keith feel calm. He pressed a kiss against the back of Lance’s head and didn’t bother hiding his smile when Lance hummed and wiggled a little closer.

“You know,” Lance said suddenly, “we never really talk about this. But I want you to know that I am super proud of you.”

Extremely confused, Keith shifted his hold on him so that his weight was spread more evenly. “Proud of me? Why?” 

“Because you are amazing,” Lance answered, his voice devoid of his usual teasing tone. Keith could feel his heartbeat speeding up and was glad that Lance was still facing away from him. What the hell?

“I’m really not that much of a big deal,” he murmured into Lances neck. He then pressed a kiss against it, loving the way it felt beneath his lips. Soft and smooth.

“See, and that’s where you’re wrong. You _totally_ are!”

What was Lance saying? Where did this even come from? Why all the compliments, was he trying to kill him?! Because if so, he was totally succeeding right now. Keith buried his face in Lance’s hair, hiding his blush even though there was no one here to see it. 

“Where is all this coming from?” he asked, not bothering to fight Lance. He didn’t want to fight. Not in this peaceful moment. Especially not when Lance used his serious-voice.

“I was just thinking about how happy everyone is. And that includes you, obviously. You’re smiling so much more than before, it’s kind of incredible. Then I asked myself what brought the change on and I wondered whether you would have still been this happy now if you were still cursed. But then I figured that it doesn’t matter either way - because you are amazing and broke your curse on your own,” Lance explained. Keith hugged him a little tighter.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” he admitted.

Lance snorted.

“Oh come on, don’t give me that crap! Just accept that you’re amazing and be done with it!”

Keith scowled a little. “I was serious though,” he insisted. He held Lance in place when he felt him trying to twist around to look at him. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Silence followed his words. Then: “But I didn’t even do anything.” Lance sounded confused and so sure of himself that Keith sighed and bumped his forehead against his head. _Idiot_.

“You didn’t do any _magic_ to help me, no. But remember the day the curse got lifted? I told you that I had to accept that I wasn’t a Galra and that I would never be one. That I was just… a human who could change appearances sometimes.”  


“Yeah,” Lance replied easily. Keith pressed a short kiss against his hair and was delighted when Lance pulled his arms closer around him.

“I told you that the thought of killing people didn’t sit right with me and that’s how I realized it. But honestly? That wasn’t the first thing that went through my head back then.” He paused a little to gather enough courage to say his next words. “It’s what you said at the beach. That I’m more than what I look like. If you… if you hadn’t accepted me like that, it wouldn’t have mattered how much I disliked killing. I still would have thought of myself as a monster. Hearing that someone as amazing as you saw me as something more - it just stuck with me.”

For a moment Keith thought that Lance would tease him for admitting that he thought of him as amazing but that never happened. Instead there was a beat of silence, then Lance suddenly tugged at his arms, nuzzling his head into them. The movement jerked Keith to the front and he just narrowly avoided clashing their heads together. “Lance, what-”

“Fucking hell, Keith, you have no idea how much I love you!”

He froze. Then his heart gave an almost painful squeeze and a tender smile snuck onto his face. He briefly knocked his head against Lance’s, as soft as possible so that he wouldn't hurt him. “Pretty sure I do. Because I love you just as much.”

 

* * *

 

_“Keith!”_ Lance slammed the door open, ignoring the looks that everyone else was giving him. He had just finished his daily lessons with Allura and had come across Jay and Becca on his way here. Now that Lance had gotten to know Jay, he found that he liked him quite a lot. He could be kind of an asshole - maybe that was a thing that came with the primary fire affinity? - but he was cool. A nice addition to the family.

That is, until he had asked him whether he and Keith were actually dating. Lance had looked at him, completely befuddled where the question came from, and then Jay had said that they were never _really_ kissing. He had been ready to protest when he realized - no, they weren’t. They always gave each other affectionate pecks everywhere but actual kisses? Nope. They had never kissed since that day in his kitchen.

It had been a month now.

Maybe Keith hadn’t liked the kisses?

“Lance?” Keith answered, one eyebrow raised. 

“Keith, I need to talk to you! Get your ass over here!” There were a lot of old, scowling, high ranking officials or whatever looking his way, but Lance paid them no mind. His eyes were intensely focused onto Keith, watching as a worried crease appeared his brows and he excused himself from the meeting. Since Keith didn’t have much else to do, he had taken on an active role in getting Altea back on track. Lance was actually kind of proud of that, who knew that Keith could be so mature and responsible?

“Hey. You okay?” Keith asked once he reached the door. Lance wasted no time in grabbing his wrist and pulling him out of the room. This was an important discussion and he’d rather not have it in front of these old geezers.

“Yeah, fine. Ah. But not really. We need to talk,” he explained. Keith’s worried look increased but he nodded.

“Okay, okay, sure. You wanna do this here or…?” 

“Lets go back to our room,” Lance said, already dragging Keith behind him. They passed Jay and Becca on their way there who gave them confused looks but Lance waved them off. It was their fault that he had to do this in the first place. If they hadn’t said anything he would have just continued his day as usual!

As soon as they had reached the room, Keith entered it and closed the door behind them. “Alright, shoot. What is it?”

Lance fiddled with his fingers a little, unsure of how to ask the question. How did you ask someone whether you had irreversibly fucked up their first kiss? Uh, kisses?

“Lance?”

“Okay, look, I need you to be honest here.” He waited for Keith to nod slowly, then he continued. “Do you hate kissing me?”

Whatever Keith had expected from their meeting, it apparently hadn’t been this. His expression was almost comical when he looked at Lance with both eyebrows raised. “Do I _what?”_

“Hate kissing me,” Lance repeated. He stopped intwining his fingers and reached for his neck instead, self-consciously rubbing over it. 

Keith just kept staring at him. “What the hell,” he said finally after a way too long time. Lance groaned and let his arm fall down again.

“No. No, that’s not an answer, Keith. Do you hate kissing me?!”

“Of course I don’t! What the fuck, Lance?! Is _this_ why you pulled me out of an meeting?!” And, well, okay, now that he knew that Keith didn’t hate kissing him the whole situation suddenly seemed a lot less dramatic. Maybe he hadn’t needed to interrupt the council-whatever thing going on there.

“This is an important part of our relationship,” Lance argued and crossed his arms. “If you don’t hate kissing me, then why are we never doing it?”

Keith opened his mouth, ready to fight back - and then he stopped. Lance saw the same realization pass over his face that had earlier passed through him. When Keith’s confused gaze settled onto him, he raised his arms up. “Do you see the problem? I never even noticed we didn’t kiss because like - I don’t know, we’re always cuddling and holding hands and stuff but now? I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Then do it,” Keith answered without hesitation. Lance could feel his face heating up and covered it with his hands, groaning silently. 

“You can’t just say that! Do you know how much pressure that puts onto me?! What if it ends like our first kiss?”

“…what was so terrible about our first kiss?” Keith asked, sounding unsure. Lance peeked through his fingers and saw that he was standing with his back to the door, frowning at the floor to his left. He was just as self-conscious as Lance was. Oh thank god, he could work with that. At least he wasn’t the only one to feel stupid.

“Nose. Teeth. Table,” Lance listed. He let his hands drop away and took a deep breath before stepping right up into Keith’s personal space. It was… it was different. Not just because there was no table this time but because Keith was suddenly smaller than him. His heart started pounding as he weaved his hands into his hair, pulling a little to make Keith look up at him.

Alright. Alright, he was going to do this.

He saw Keith’s tongue swipe briefly across his lips and suppressed the urge to whimper and run away. No. Not the time. He _wanted_ to kiss him. It wasn’t even their first kiss, why the fuck was he so nervous?

“Well, there is no table this time. And no peppermint breath. I think we’re good,” Keith said, his eyes locked onto Lance’s lips. That’s it, that was the last straw. Lance pressed their lips together hurriedly, not leaving himself any time to overthink things.

And oh. Oh, this was- this was actually really nice. They needed to do this more often.

Keith’s lips were soft and pliant under his, still slightly wet from where his tongue had trailed over them. Lance wanted to taste them. Slowly he raised one hand to help guide Keith his head to the side a bit, fitting their mouths better together. He could feel Keith sighing into the kiss and then there were suddenly hands gripping at his shirt and pulling him closer.

Yeah. Yeah, they _definitely_ needed to do this more often.

Lance smiled into the kiss and broke it briefly to look at Keith. Keith was looking right back, his eyes sparkling brightly. “More often?” he asked, trusting that Keith would understand.  


“ _Yes_. Do you really have to ask?” Lance laughed and brought his lips closer again until they were almost brushing Keith’s.

“I guess I don’t,” he murmured, pressing them together again. He wasn’t about to stop anytime soon, fuck the meeting.

 

* * *

 

Hunk honestly didn’t like all this formal stuff. He had been quick to agree to Allura’s request to stay at the castle and help her but he didn’t feel comfortable with the suits and the speeches. His only comfort was Keith, who looked just as miserable as he felt.

“Why are we doing this again?” Keith asked, sounding miffed. Hunk grimaced anxiously.

“Allura’s request. I should never have agreed to this. But let’s be honest, who can reject her when she asks us in her ‘I’m royalty and you are peasants’ tone?”

“Lance, apparently,” Keith answered grumpily. Hunk sighed, Keith was right. Ever since Lance had become Allura’s student he had become way better at evading stuff like this. Standing for two hours listening to speeches and then mingling with people from far away villages might have been fun for the first few times, but after the tenth he had honestly had enough. He envied Lance, he would much rather be outside too. Or Pidge, at least she had some kind of excuse with her family’s work. He was stuck here.

When the last representative of a village stepped up to thank Allura for rescuing them all, Hunk breathed a sigh of relief. Almost done. Now it was just a little smalltalk, that he could do. No problem.

Keith suddenly shifted next to him and Hunk looked over. He had his face pulled into a frown that said he was thinking hard. 

“What’s wrong, buddy?”

“It’s just - I could have sworn I’ve seen that woman somewhere before,” Keith answered, brows creased. Hunk shifted his head to the admittedly pretty girl but he couldn’t remember ever having come across her. Then Keith suddenly gasped. Hunk raised his eyebrows.

“You remembered?”

“Yeah! That’s the girl from the village that I visited with Lance! Hah, Lance is gonna be so pissed that he missed this,” Keith grinned. He suddenly seemed to be in much higher spirits and Hunk felt it lifting his own mood. Much more motivated than before, Hunk clapped a hand onto Keith’s shoulders.

“Well, if that’s the case, we should definitely go say hi later.”  


“Definitely,” Keith agreed. They waited for Allura to dismiss them and Keith immediately made his way towards her. Hunk followed after, eager to get to know another one of Lance’s friends.

“Hey! You!”

The woman turned around, giving them a kind, if slightly confused smile. Hunk returned it sheepishly while Keith awkwardly stuck his hand out. “It’s. Uh, nice to see you again.”

She blinked at him a few times, then let her gaze travel over to Hunk. Hunk could feel his eyes going wide, she was… well, she was beautiful.

“I’m sorry, I think you are mistaking me for someone else,” she said in a soft voice. Oh. Oh, well then. Hunk was just about to apologize when Keith shook his head and dropped his hand back down.

“No, I’m sure that was you. In the village? With Lance?”

The woman was still smiling politely but it was obvious that she had no idea what was going on. Hunk grimaced and placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Maybe you did mistake her for someone else?” But Keith didn’t even consider his words, immediately shaking his head.

“No. No, that was her. I’m Keith. You helped me with the potions.”

Slowly but surely the confusion in her face lifted. She cocked her head to the side, eyebrows slightly furrowed. “…Red?” she asked uncertainly.

Keith immediately straightened himself out and nodded heavily. “Yeah! That’s me. My real name is Keith. Lance - uh, Blue - isn’t here right now but I could totally get him, if you want.”

Wait. Wait, that hadn’t been the plan - but when Hunk saw the happy grin spreading across the woman’s face he couldn’t find it in him to protest. “I’m Shay! Nice to meet you, Keith. You look… different.”  


Keith grinned. “I do. Doesn’t matter though. Hang on, I will just go get Lance. Hunk, keep her company.”

“Uh, sure?” And then Keith walked away, leaving him to awkwardly hover in front of Shay. “Yeah, right, good plan, leave Hunk to entertain the pretty girl while you go make out with your boyfriend,” he grumbled under his breath. He snapped back to attention when Shay cleared her throat.

“So, hi?”

“Hi, my name’s Hunk. I guess we’ll just have to wait for Keith to return with Lance. If they ever return. They are dating, so you never know when they just don’t show up anymore.”

The shocked expression taking over Shay’s face was unexpected, to say the least. Hunk raised his eyebrows at her. “What?”

“They are _dating?_ But isn’t Bl- Lance, like, sixty years old?”

Hunk stared for a few more seconds, then started laughing heartily. “It looks like we have a lot of stuff to talk about,” he pressed out, still smiling when he told her about Lance’s and Keith’s relationship. 

 

* * *

 

Keith was tired. Ever since most of the formal and political stuff was back in order, he had focused on helping people find new homes. He usually spent hours at a time outside carrying wood and stones to build houses, his Galra strength a big help for everyone. When Lance didn’t work on his magic and felt up to it, he would come join him and help him lift stuff with wind magic. 

Through his work there, he had also gotten to know Thace better. Contrary to what he had first expected, the two of them got along quite well. Not as good as he did with any of Lance’s friends or family members but he was nice company. He was also always open to talk about Keith’s father and Keith made use of that as often as he could.

Now though? Now Keith just wanted to sleep.

He had just finished his bath and was ready to pass out the moment his skin touched the bed when he saw that it was already occupied. Blearily he blinked at the person there, leaning in to give them a kiss - only to realize that the skin was _way_ too light to be Lance’s.

What the fuck.

Who was in his bed?!

In his surprise he stumbled backwards, bumping his little toe painfully against the bedpost. He cursed and hopped back, one hand automatically reaching behind his back to where his knife used to sit. But it wasn’t there, he hadn’t been carrying it around for months now. 

It was only then that he realized that the person had woken up. 

“Keith? Man, where have you been all this time? It’s already dark out, you know.”

_“Lance?!”_ Keith hissed. Lance blinked a few times, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, _duh?_ Whom did you expect?”

“No, no, it’s-” Keith stared. Now that he was fully awake again, he registered that Lance’s skin colorwas the same as always. The difference was a white cream that covered his entire face, making him seem eerily sick. “-what’s that on your face?”

“Huh?” Lance lifted a hand to touch his skin, apparently surprised to see it come back slick. Then he grinned. “Oh, that? That’s a cream Allura told me about! Apparently Alteans used it to keep their skin nice and smooth, I thought I could give it a try. Since, you know, a personality as good as mine should have the dashing looks to go along with it.”

Pressing his lips together, Keith tried not to frown too hard. He failed, probably. Lance had almost given him a heart attack and that’s what he chose to say to him? That fucking _idiot_.

“I would have put it onto you too, but you still weren’t here yet when I returned from dinner.”  


“Good I was late then,” Keith mumbled grumpily and pushed against Lance’s shoulders. Lance moved over, unfazed by Keith’s words.

“Whatever, we can try it out tomorrow. By the way, Maria decided to take up on Allura’s offer to work in the library. I think she broke your record in learning how to read, she’s absolutely smitten with books.” Keith got into the bed, wrapping his arms around Lance’s torso to drag him up against his chest. Lance easily adapted to the new position, making himself comfortable in Keith’s arms. “So yeah, the dinner today was also kind of a celebration party.”

“Sorry I missed it,” Keith offered. Lance waved him off. 

“Nah, no worries. We didn’t know that she had accepted the offer until she told us when we were already eating. Mom was shocked, she totally wanted to start dinner over and invite everyone we knew. Who would have thought that one day two of her children would be working directly under the current ruler of this country?” 

Suppressing a yawn, Keith nuzzled his face against Lance’s hair. One of Lance’s hands came up to pet his hair and he sighed contently. He doubted that he could stay awake for much longer. Lance was nice and warm and the bed was comfortable. And he was exhausted.

“Keith? You there?”

Keith hummed and let his eyes slip close. “Yeah, yeah. Congrats to Maria. ’m tired.” He could feel Lance’s laughter vibrate through his chest and pulled him up higher.

“You stay out for way too long. What are you even doing all the time?”

“Working,” Keith mumbled. He could feel his consciousness slipping away. Wow, he had to have been really tired if he fell asleep this fast.

“You’re _always_ working. That’s it, you’re taking a break tomorrow. We can take Elena and Jim to visit Pidge’s workshop, they’ve been begging me to take them there all this time since they’re too shy to go on their own. And no complaints, you’re coming with us!”

Keith felt his hand being lifted and something warm and soft pressed against it. A kiss.

He fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

“Lance goes on top,” Pidge announced after she had climbed onto Hunk’s shoulders. Lance bristled and crossed his arms. 

“Oh yeah? And why should I do that?”

“Many reasons. One: I can definitely see when you’re cheating and using magic. Two: you probably can’t even lift Keith. Three: even if you can, Keith is definitely the stronger one out of the two of you so I’m not gonna fight him. There you have it.” 

Lance narrowed his eyes at her before looking over at Keith. His boyfriend just shrugged, not caring either way. Lance did though, he wanted to win this. He hadn’t played this game ever since he had been forced to leave his family all those years ago. Three people were not enough to play and for some reason Matt had never agreed to join them. But now they were finally enough…

The rules were simple: everyone got into teams of two with one sitting on the shoulders of the other. Then the player on top had to make the enemy’s top players fall down. Last team standing complete wins. The bottom players, so the one carrying their partners, were not allowed to interfere with the push-and-pull contest of the top players, it was their job to keep the them balanced and upright. Naturally they played the game in the water, that way no one would get hurt if they fell to the ground.

As soon as he had suggested that they played the game Hunk and Pidge had partnered up. They were definitely at an advantage here, Pidge was light and easy to carry. As for Lance and Keith… they had to weigh about the same amount and Lance knew that he would tire out very fast if he attempted to carry him. But he had also never in his life been a top player and he didn’t want to lose this! This game held emotional value, damn it!

“Alright, okay, I’ll let Keith carry me. Only if he can do it in his Galra from though,” Lance said smugly. Now that was a good solution if he had ever heard one.

“Hm, I don’t know…” Pidge drawled. Lance could feel his eyebrow twitch. She was making this way harder than it had to be. “What do you say, Hunk?”

“Honestly? I don’t care either way. I think I can carry you for long enough so it would only be fair if Keith could keep up with that.”  


Lance nodded exaggeratedly and clapped a hand over Keith’s mouth. Now was not the time to show his damaged pride over Hunk’s words, not when it actually gave them an advantage they could use to win. Keith seemed irritated but didn’t tug Lance’s hand away. Good.

“Hunk gets it! It’s only fair,” Lance stated. Pidge shot him an unimpressed look.

“Only fair? You are the only one who has ever played it before. I don’t see how our advantage is worth more than your experience.”

Was that a compliment? Was it not? Lance didn’t know and he wouldn’t focus on it now. He had an argument - and a game! - to win.

“Yeah, well, but not as a top player. There is a _huge_ difference, buddy.” Pidge didn’t seem convinced but in the end she gave in and they started playing.

Lance and Keith absolutely _obliterated_ her and Hunk. Hunk moved sluggishly in the water and was never quite fast enough to take a step back when Lance shoved hard. Pidge was too light to keep her balance on her own, falling down almost immediately. Meanwhile Keith had enough strength to not be bothered with the water resistance at all and Lance was quick to adapt to his new top player status. They won five times in quick succession and he couldn’t help but laugh.

Today was a good day, he decided.

And not just because they were totally winning this. He was also super close to Keith’s ears and he still remembered very clearly how cute they were.

Once he had noticed how easily accessible they were from his position, he began to gleefully poke at them. Pidge and Hunk had called for a time out to discuss a battle strategy that Lance had no doubt would fail. Keith and him were invincible after all.

“What do you think you are doing?” Keith asked him in a clipped tone. Lance grinned down at him.

“Having fun? Man, your ears are cute. Look-” He softly brushed his fingertips against the top part and watched them move. “-they are _twitching!”_

“Stop it!”

“Why?”

“It’s _annoying!”_ Keith gritted out. Lance’s grin deepened and he brushed his fingers over them again. More twitching.

“I think it’s adorable,” he cooed.

“Call them adorable one more time and I’ll drop you into the water.” Unperturbed Lance kept brushing and poking at them. Keith wouldn’t drop him, he wanted to win just was much as Lance did. And the ears were adorable, even if he denied it.

“Would you just _stop it_ already!” One of Keith’s hands shot up to drag Lance’s hand away from his head. Lance yelped and grabbed onto Keith’s hair, desperately trying not to fall down. Thankfully that didn’t seem to be Keith’s intention, he was quick to adjust to the shift in balance and kept Lance on top of him.

“But why?” Lance whined. “They really are adorable! If you could see them you’d know what I mean!” 

Keith mumbled something that he couldn’t understand and Lance’s brows furrowed. “What?”

“I said it tickles,” Keith repeated, a little louder this time. Lance blinked, surprised at this new information, then he began laughing.

“Oh my god! Is that why you’re always so against me touching them? Because you’re ticklish?”

“Well, if you would actually _touch_ them and not just tickle the hair with your fingers to see them twitch I wouldn’t be like this!”

“What? So you want me to massage your ears?” Lance couldn’t help but grin at the annoyed groan that was his response. Classic Keith. Always so grumpy. Tugging his right hand back to Keith’s head, he began to scratch against the base of his ear, careful not to let the touch become too light this time.

The change in attitude was instant.

Keith let out a content sigh and turned his head to give him better access. For a moment Lance was absolutely stunned and froze, then he laughed and picked his movement up again.

“You like that? Seriously?! You’re like a cat, dude! A big, overgrown, half-human cat. Oh man, if I had known this earlier we could have totally taken the Galra down by luring them into traps with feather toys… do you also like belly rubs?”

_“Lance!”_

“Hey, just asking! I have to take proper care of my boyfriend after all!”

 

* * *

 

“Hey Keith, I wanna show you something.” 

Keith looked up from the book that Maria had recommended him and watched Lance reach out for his instrument. Ever since they had finished with building houses for everyone he had taken up a new hobby: learning how to play the guitar. Keith had been kind of bored but luckily Lance’s sister had known some good books to keep him occupied until he could find something new to do.

“What is it?”

“You’ll have to get up, I can’t reach the guitar from here,” Lance grinned down at him. For a moment Keith contemplated moving away from his comfortable spot on Lance’s thighs but eventually decided against it.

“Then I guess it’s not happening.” He went back to his book.

“No! Noooo, Keith, what are you doing? Pay attention to me!” Lance whined. Keith rolled his eyes but put the book down with a fond smile.

“I am paying attention to you. But I’m not moving. If you want the guitar, can’t you just make it fly over?”

“Well yeah, but I can’t play if you’re still taking up my entire lap. Not without crushing your face anyway.”

Keith frowned. Should he move or have his face crushed? Lance was so comfortable…

“Oh come on! I really want to show you this. We can sit against the wall and you can put your head on my shoulder. Deal?” Lance sounded so excited that Keith couldn’t find it in him to say no. With a heavy sigh he sat up, waited for Lance to magic his guitar closer and got into position against his side. His shoulder was not as comfy as his thighs but it would have to make do.

“What are you gonna do anyway?” Keith asked as he watched Lance’s fingers testing out the strings. They stopped moving and Keith looked up. Lance was looking back at him, a self-assured smirk on his face.

“I’m gonna serenade you. I wanted to do it earlier already but then Coran told me about this fancy instrument and now I even have music to accompany my voice.”

Keith had frozen in terror and only just recovered from it. “You know… I don’t think I need to be serenaded,” he said and slowly lifted his head. Maybe if he turned into his Galran form he could run away fast enough to not hear any of Lance’s horrendous singing. He still had nightmares from the month he had spent getting woken up by it.

“Aww, but why not? Let me show you my love for you!” Lance grinned. Keith slowly inched backwards, if he could get up before Lance realized that he was trying to escape he totally had a chance.

“I know you love me, that’s enough already. Really. You can… you can always just kiss me. That’s good enough, really, no need to go through all that trouble-”

“Why not both?” Lance smirked. Then he suddenly launched forward, grabbing Keith’s hands over his guitar. Keith tensed, he had been too slow, now there was no escaping anymore…

“Is the singing really necessary though? You could just play me a song,” he tried. 

And failed.

“No, no, no, the singing is definitely necessary. What kind of half-assed serenading would it be if I didn’t even sing to you? You can’t escape from this one, Keith!” Keith grimaced but allowed Lance to pull him back onto the bed. He would just… press his one hear close to his shoulder. Close enough that he wouldn’t hear anything. And he would cover the other one with his hand, he could totally survive this.

Lance leaned in for a kiss and Keith willingly returned it. The longer he could drag this out, the better.

“Alright! Time to get blown off your feet, come on, make yourself comfortable again.” Lance awkwardly patted his own shoulder. Keith suppressed a sigh but complied.

“Your singing is awful though,” he mumbled lowly. Apparently not lowly enough though, Lance immediately picked up on it.

“Rude, Keith. Very rude. And here I was, trying to do something nice for you.”

“Maybe you could just stick to the instrument. That’s plenty nice already. And it has the added benefit that I’m not forced to relive all those mornings I got woken up with the most awful singing I’ve ever heard.” Lance laughed openly and Keith lifted his head a little. Whenever Lance laughed his whole body laughed with him, meaning that his shoulder suddenly got a very uncomfortable place to stay. It was okay though, Keith would willingly lift his head as often as needed as long as Lance kept laughing.

“You thought that was me at my best? I would have been insulted if that wasn’t exactly what I wanted to make you believe at that time. Trust me, my dear, you haven’t yet gotten the pleasure of experiencing Lance’s real musical skills.”  


“Uh-huh,” Keith answered, unconvinced. He really didn’t want to sit through Lance’s awful singing but Lance seemed excited to do this. He could endure it a little, he supposed. For the sake of Lance’s happiness. 

“Awesome! You all set?”

“Yeah. Whatever. Just blow me away already,” Keith said in a flat tone. Lance laughed again and finally began to play.

“Alright then. Prepare yourself, for you’ll never get to hear something as ethereal and unique as this.”  


“Uh-huh. Sure.”  


And then Lance began singing. Keith’s eyes went wide and he turned his head to look at Lance. His boyfriend was focused on his guitar but his smug grin was still very much in place. He must have felt Keith turning his head and known what it meant.

Lance’s singing _was_ beautiful.

Keith slowly dropped back down onto Lance’s shoulders and allowed a tiny smile to take over his face. He could listen to this for hours.

 

* * *

 

Shiro was curious to say the least. It wasn’t often that anyone saw Allura acting nervously.“Everything okay?”

“Yes. Yes, don’t worry. In fact I have a proposal to make - it’s all up to you, really.” Shiro blinked a few times, then cocked his head cautiously. He couldn’t really imagine what kind of proposal would make her as anxious as she was, especially if the final decision was up to him.

“Alright. What is it?”

Allura took a deep breath, then smiled at him. “According to Lance you lost your right arm a little over eight months ago. Is that correct?”

“Actually it’s almost nine months now,” Shiro corrected. He frowned a little, he wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything. Allura’s smile grew weaker.

“Shortly after I woke up from the magical sleep I had a good chat with Matt. He told me that you had troubles adapting to… uh.”  


“Living one-armed,” Shiro supplied helpfully. He had kind of gotten used to people not being sure how to talk about it. On one hand he appreciated them trying to be sensitive, on the other hand it just made him feel uncomfortable. At least his blunt reply seemed to help Allura regain her balance.

“Exactly. After we got most of Altea back under our control I started looking for ways to help you with that.”  


“Help me… with getting used to this?” Shiro raised an eyebrow in confusion and placed his hand over his stump. “I’m fine now. I’ve had quite a long time to adapt to being left handed.”

“You still deserve better,” Allura insisted. Shiro’s second eyebrow joined his first and he stared at her with both raised brows. 

“Okay?”

“What I am trying to say is that I found a way to give you your arm back. Or at least replace it with an artificial one made from another material that can take over every function a normal arm would have.”

For a moment Shiro just let these words pass through him. He wasn’t sure what to make of them. What was Allura trying to tell him? Then her words registered and he froze on the spot.

Replace… replace his arm? He could have his arm back? 

Allura frowned at the silence. “You do not have to decide now. I fully understand that it is a loaded decision to make and you can take all the time you need.”  


Finally Shiro regained his voice. “No, I, um - how would that even work?” He was genuinely confused. He would admit that he didn’t have a lot of experience with magic - especially not with the Altean kind of magic - but he was fairly certain that they couldn’t just connect… stuff to his brain.

And just like that Allura’s nerves were back.

“It’s - well, it’s not a spell. I actually found a spell that could replace your arm but Altean magicians are not like human magicians: we need to stay connected to the Balmeran crystal if we want to keep a spell upright. We are not limited to element bound magic and we do not have certain kinds of spells that drain our energy faster than others but we are tied to the crystal. So if I had to keep a spell on your arm at all times it would drain the crystal way too fast and - and it’s just really not practical.”  
Shiro nodded and sent her a reassuring smile, silently encouraging her to keep talking. She forced a smile back, even if it resulted in some kind of grimace. This wasn’t good. Whatever she had to say, it obviously stressed her out a lot. 

“Then what is it?” he asked calmly. Allura stopped trying to fake a smile and closed her eyes. After she breathed in deeply, she opened them again and looked him dead in the eyes.

“It’s a curse. I can curse any kind of material and force it to act like your brain wants it to for as long as needed. The decision is entirely up to you though.”  


A curse.

A queasy feeling settled in his stomach but he pushed it aside. They were talking about Allura, there was no way she would use a bad kind of curse. She would never willingly hurt him. Even if Lance insisted that every kind of curse was an evil one.

“Do I have to be worried about any kinds of side effects? Is there a chance that it could go wrong or act out?” he asked. Allura pressed her hands together, still uncomfortable about the entire thing.

“There are no side effects. A curse made by a Balmeran crystal only ever does what it is told to as long as it doesn’t include harming Alteans or other Balmeran crystals. The chances that it could go wrong are slim to none… but even if it did, I am the original caster and could call it back at any time,” she said.

A heavy silence settled over the two of them. Shiro tried to sort through the information he had been given and honestly couldn’t see any downsides to it. It would be weird to have his other arm back but he could get used to it. It would actually probably be a big help…

So why did Allura look so nervous?

“You are uncomfortable with this, aren’t you?” he asked her. She flinched a little as if she hadn’t been expected getting called out on it, then she sent him another thin smile.

“I am. But that is not important. If you want your arm back, I can give it to you.”  


“Why are you uncomfortable?” His voice was gentle, he didn’t want to force her to say anything she didn’t want to. But he had to know as much as possible before making a final decision. Allura sighed. 

“I’m uncomfortable because it is a curse. It will have no negative side effects on any of us but using a curse is… it’s wrong. Curses are… not nice. I am not sure how to describe it to someone that doesn’t use magic but it’s like bending and forcing the magic into a from it’s not supposed to be in. I don’t like it, I have never cursed anything before,” she admitted.

Shiro kept silent and thought for a moment, then he smiled. He placed his hand onto her shoulder and squeezed a little. “I really appreciate your efforts,” he began and searched her eyes. She readily locked hers to his. “But it is not necessary for you to do this. Throughout the months I’ve spend living one-armed, I’ve gotten quite used it already. You don’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.” 

“And you don’t have to live in a way that makes you uncomfortable,” Allura replied immediately. Shiro laughed and let his hand drop away.

“I can promise you, I am not. It’s actually quite nice to never having to do the dishes,” he grinned. Allura seemed surprised at his response but didn’t protest. She merely kept looking at him as if she was waiting for him to reveal that he was lying. 

He wasn’t. He was fine. It had taken him a long time to accept his new situation but he had come to see it as proof of his love for Keith. Loosing an arm wasn’t important as long as his friends were safe.

“I am fine. I am happy,” he said.  


And he meant every word of it.

 

* * *

 

Lance swung their entwined hands between them as they walked down the corridor towards Pidge’s workshop. Apparently Keith had something that he wanted to show him. Come to think of it, he had spent a lot of time with Pidge and Matt lately. Should he be worried about Keith stealing his friends away?

Nah, he decided. His friends loved him too much for that. And Keith desperately needed some more friends, even after more than half a year he still didn’t talk to anyone besides his immediate circle of friends. What a loser. Lance lifted their hands and pressed a kiss against Keith’s fingers.

“What was that for?”

“Dunno. Just wanted to. You never show me anything so I’m kinda excited for this,” Lance said smoothly. Keith raised an eyebrow at him but pulled their hands over to his mouth.

“Now we’re even.”  


“Oh no, no, no, you’re not gonna win against me in a kissing contest!” Lance immediately complained and came to a halt. He tried pulling their hands towards him again but Keith firmly held against it. Asshole.

“Who said it was a contest?” Keith asked amusedly. Lance brought his left hand to force their hands up. He managed, somehow, even if he almost smacked himself in the face in the process. Pressing a quick kiss against Keith’s hand, he smirked.

“You did. You said we’re ‘even’. If that’s not declaring a competition I don’t know what is.”

“Well, if that’s the case…” Keith suddenly yanked at their hands, successfully pulling them towards him. Lance felt him press two kisses in quick succession against his hand before he could push them back down. 

“Cheater! I wasn’t ready!”

“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t aware that I had to give you a warning and time to prepare yourself before kiss-attacking you,” Keith snarked. Lance narrowed his eyes at him.

“Of course you do! That’s only fair. You get to run around and train your muscles every day and I’m stuck with magic lessons-”

“Don’t even act as if you don’t like them.”  


“What? No, no, I definitely like them! But that’s not the point here, the point is that you get to train your muscles while I get to train my magic. So in hand-to-hand combat you’re at an advantage that we have to minimize somehow. For fairness reasons,” Lance explained. Keith didn’t really seem convinced by his logic.

“I only used my left hand. Isn’t that enough compensation already?”

“Obviously it wasn’t,” Lance replied condescendingly.

“Or maybe you’re just a sore loser,” Keith grinned. What the hell?! No, he wasn’t! This just really really wasn’t fair, that was all there was to it.

“Am not!” he complained. “And I haven't lost yet,” he added quickly as he pulled their hands to his lips. They almost connected, but Keith was faster and pulled them back down again. Lance glanced up, narrowing his eyes at the smirk on Keith’s face.

“I’m going to win this.”  


“Whatever you say,” Keith said easily. That fucking asshole was speaking way to self-assuredly. Lance couldn’t stand it so he did the only thing that made sense at that time: he lunged forward and pulled Keith into a real kiss. Keith stiffened in surprise and Lance pulled away before he could reciprocate. 

“See? Now we totally have a winner,” he declared, satisfied. He could hear Keith huffing out a laugh and suddenly there were lips pressing against his cheek. Aghast Lance slapped his hands against the spot, trying to chase the tingling away. Keith had one-upped him _again?!_

“If this is a contest I’m not going to let you win that easily,” Keith teased. Before Lance could reply he had let go of their hands, running towards Pidge’s workshop. 

“What the fuck! Keith, get back here you asshole! I still have to kiss you!” Lance took after him, willing himself to run as fast as possible. He knew that he wasn’t that much slower than Keith in his human form. He could catch up. Maybe.

“Keith! I hate you! Get back here!”

Lance just barely avoided crashing into one of the nice Galra that still lived in the castle. Squeaking out a ‘sorry’, he kept chasing after Keith.

“You fucker! I will not accept this, you are cheating!”

“How is it cheating when you were the first one to break the mouth-to-hand rule?” Keith’s voice echoed through the hallway. 

“Because! I already told you, I get extra rules! Fairness stuff!” His breathing was growing heavier and they still weren’t there yet.

“Just how many extra rules to you want?”  


“Enough to win!” Lance called back. He heard Keith laughing and sped up a little, it was harder to run while laughing. He knew that from experience. 

Not for Keith apparently.

“Oh my god! Stop running already! I hate you! Get back here!”

“Not a chance!”

“Keith, you fucker! I will never forgive you for this!” People were giving him concerned looks but Lance didn’t pay them any mind. He almost reached the workshop anyways, Keith couldn’t be that far ahead. Just a few corners left.

When he turned around the next corner, he didn’t manage to stop in time to not crash into Keith. Luckily Keith seemed to have expected this, he caught Lance and steadied both of them until they had regained their balance. Not leaving himself time to catch his breath, Lance mushed Keith’s cheeks together and pressed a kiss against his lips. It was a breathy, wet kiss, kind of disgusting actually, but it didn’t matter. They were totally even again.

“Alright, alright, draw?” Keith laughed. Lance grumbled a little and tried to peck his cheek but Keith moved out of the way.  


“Okay. Fine. Draw,” he reluctantly agreed. Keith smiled happily, his dark eyes sparkling and Lance could feel his pout drop away. No matter how often he got to see him like this, Keith always looked more beautiful than he remembered him to. It was incredible.

“Cool. Because this is what I wanted to show you,” Keith said and gestured to a wardrobe in front of them. Lance blinked and turned, trying to figure out what was so special about it. From the way it was put together it looked a lot as if Matt had done it. But that wasn’t all there was to it: there were lots of carvings, weaving together and creating patterns that he could get lost in. Honestly, it was beautiful. 

“Oho. Did Matt finally learn that there’s more to creating furniture than putting wood together?” he grinned. Slowly he raised his hand, letting his fingers trail over flowers and leaves, tracing them down as far as he could. Keith bumped his shoulder against his.

“Do you like it?”

“Actually I do. It looks kind of amazing. Maybe you should let him teach you,” Lance suggested. Keith began laughing and Lance frowned a bit. What was so funny about that? “What?”

“I did this,” Keith replied, looking very pleased with himself. Lance could feel his eyebrows raising. 

“You?”

“Yeah. I almost fucked up several times, look here.” Keith pointed at a flower that, frankly, just looked beautiful. Lance couldn’t see anything that seemed like a fuck up. But he furrowed his brows, leaned forward and tapped against the wood.

“Yeah, yeah, now that you mention it, this looks terrible. Not sure how I didn’t notice it before. We should throw the entire thing away.”  


“You’re an ass,” Keith said and shoved at him. Lance laughed and shoved back, then held onto Keith’s neck and pressed a kiss against his cheek.

“Okay, jokes aside, you’re a genius. Did Pidge already ask you to work for her family?”

“She did.” The smile on Keith’s face was almost bashful. “And I said yes. So you’ll probably see more stuff like this in the future.”  


“Cool! Matt’s blank designs were getting kind of boring, maybe _you_ could teach _him_ instead.” Lance revelled in the way Keith’s smile lit up his whole face.

“Maybe. We’ll see. This is fun to do even if Matt seems to think otherwise.”  


“A shame. But well, at least we have you now. Hey, does this mean we can get an actual beautiful barrel for the jellyfish now? I want seashells and fishes on it! Oh, and seahorses!”

 

* * *

 

“And then after that Allura instructed me to do the light spell again. I swear, I could _feel_ how the meditation helped! It’s incredible, I’m pretty sure that I could disguise you, me and Hunk for an entire night like this!” Lance exclaimed. Keith watched him, head propped up against a stone next to the pond. He was smiling, hands gesticulating wildly as he told him about his daily magical sessions.

“Not even kidding! We’ve been practicing light spells for a while now and I’m fairly confident I could cast them in my sleep, but this was the first time I could feel how it didn’t drain my energy as much as before. I would totally do this more often but ugh, meditation is, like, the most boring thing ever. Even worse than books,” Lance complained. A snort tore itself out of Keith’s throat.

“Don’t tell Maria about that,” he quipped. Lance looked at him as if he had lost his head.

“The fuck? There is no way I’m gonna tell her my honest opinion on her sacred books. And you shouldn’t either if you care even the tiniest bit for my life.”  


“Guess I won’t then. Someone has to eat all the peppermint your mother is so fond of. And that’s certainly not gonna be me,” Keith smiled. Lance faked a frown but Keith could see right through him. There was a sparkle in his eyes and his lips kept twitching upwards, even if he tried to stay serious.

“That’s all I am to you? The person that eats your peppermint?”

“And the person that cleans my clothes, I guess,” Keith added in afterthought. Lance gasped and flicked some water at him, making Keith hide behind his arms. Not that it mattered much, the water suddenly changed directions and attacked his face from below. Sometimes life was unfair like this.

“I cannot stand you. Remind me why I’m talking to you again?”

“Because you need someone to listen to you about your magic lessons and no one else is willing to put up with it anymore,” Keith spoke dutifully. “And because you love me.” Lance kept frowning for a moment, then flung some more water at Keith’s face.

“I don’t know why but I do.”

Keith grimaced at his newly wet hair and sticky shirt and brushed the water away. “Same here.” Their eyes met and they both began smiling at the same time.

“So, anyway, I’m telling you, it was really really weird. The effects don’t last for long though… hang on, let me try whether it still works.” Lance placed a hand onto Keith’s face, drawing the water away and casting a light spell at the same time. He had started doing magic in front of Keith so often now that he didn’t even bother to close his eyes anymore. Keith loved it, it meant he got to see his blue eyes lighting up almost daily.

Except they didn’t today.

Keith frowned and looked down. No, no he was definitely invisible. He couldn’t see his own legs, arms, anything. So why didn’t Lance’s eyes flash?

“Your eyes are not glowing,” Keith informed Lance. Lance stared blankly back at him. A little impatient Keith raised his hand and tapped it under his own eye. “Your eyes. They are not glowing blue. Why not?”

“They are… they are not?” Lance sounded incredulous and Keith shook his head. “Are you sure?!”

“Yes, I am. I can see, Lance,” Keith replied. He was a little irritated but that immediately faded away when he saw Lance’s eyes grow wide in wonder. “Lance?”

“No way!” Lance exclaimed. He extended a hand towards the pod, drawing some water up and spreading it out in front of him. Keith didn’t move when he took the spell away and casted it anew. Still nothing. Lance’s eyes stayed their usual dark blue color.

Slowly, oh so slowly a huge grin made its way onto Lance’s face. “Lance?” Keith asked cautiously. Lance let the water drop back into the pond and turned towards Keith, his arms flailing excitedly.

“They are not glowing! My eyes are not glowing anymore when I’m doing the light spell! Keith, do you know what that means?!”

“Uh. Actually, I don’t,” Keith admitted. But Lance was unfazed, his smile now stretching so wide it had to hurt him. Keith couldn’t help but starting to smile too, even if he had no idea what was going on.

“Remember how I told you about the glowing thing being a warning mechanism? Yeah well, that’s not quite it, Allura told me. It has got to do with myself. If I feel comfortable using a certain spell or type of magic my eyes stop glowing. It’s like… it’s proof that you got it. That the spell is a part of you. That you are completely controlling it,” Lance babbled. His voice was giddy in excitement and Keith had to concentrate hard on his words so that he didn’t just get swept away.

“So… you basically did the light spell often enough that you’re comfortable with it?”

Lance squeaked and suddenly pulled him into a hug. Surprised he hugged back, only to be held at arm’s length just a moment after. Lance was alive, he was almost jumping in excitement. “No! Keith, you don’t _understand!_ Do you know how long it has been since any human magician has managed to do that? To get this comfortable with an element _that isn’t even in their high potentials?”_

“A long time?” Keith guessed. Definitely a long time. It had been centuries since there had last been a human magician, after all. But apart from that Keith didn’t know much about the topic. He knew that Lance had a hard time with light magic though, so he was very proud of him.

“Allura told me that there were only three people that _ever_ managed to do that!” Lance beamed and let go of him to pull more water out of the pond. “Three people Keith! _Three!_ I am - I am the fourth person to do this, ever! That is - this is so amazing, again! Let’s do it again, come on, come on!”

Keith laughed and offered a hand, squeezing Lance’s when he took it. Lance was overflowing with happiness and Keith could feel it seep into him. It was perfect, he never wanted this moment to stop. 

Lance was amazing and he was finally beginning to accept that.

 

* * *

 

Coran twirled his moustache, frowning at all the stuff Hunk had put in front of them. There was a lot of it and he wasn’t sure whether he remembered it all. It had been a year since he had woken up but he still had troubles with all the new plants and animals that now lived on Altea. Especially when it came to understanding whether you could eat them or not.

“We need all of that?!” Lance exclaimed a little shocked. He was sitting on the table that Hunk had used to put the stuff down and while Coran didn’t appreciate him sitting down on their workspace, he had to agree with his words. 

“Of course we do! You wanted to know how to make the stew so I’m not letting you get away with a flimsy beginners version. We are here to do serious cooking, are we not?”  


“Yeah, well,” Lance began but Coran cut him off.

“Of course we are! Lance is just a little overwhelmed, that is all. Not that I can blame him, you have to admit that your assortment of ingredients is rather expansive,” he said to Hunk. Hunk just shrugged.

“You think so? It’s not that bad. You should see the stuff my dad makes sometimes, it’s incredible, really. He doesn’t go all out unless there’s a party somewhere but-”

_“Oh my god_ , Hunk, don’t talk about your father’s cooking or I’m gonna cry!” Lance whined and flopped forward. 

“Now, now, that’s not very nice of you,” Coran chided. Lance lifted his head, apparently confused, then he laughed and shook it.

“No! I meant I’m gonna cry because it’s so awesome and we can’t eat it! You _have_ to eat his cooking sometime, it’s a religious experience, really.” Lance’s eyes had taken on a dreamy look and Coran smiled. “I’m just - _god_ , Hunk, remember that bird thing he did for my birthday last year? That was so amazing, I’m getting hungry just  thinking about it. I’m gonna start drooling any second now.”  


“Oh yeah, that was amazing,” Hunk agreed readily. “But do you remember the soup he did for Pidge’s? Because that one absolutely killed me.”

Lance moaned and hopped from the table, draping his arms around Hunk dramatically. “Are you sure that we can’t just get him and have him cook for us? I’m really _craving_ that soup now. And we won’t even be able to eat anything for another two hours because that’s how long it’ll take to finish the stew.”  


“It would probably take him just as long to finish the soup,” Hunk said and placed a comforting hand onto Lance’s head. Lance sniffled a little and turned to look at Coran.

“What do you say? Should we try and fail to cook for two hours or get Hunk’s father and have him make the most amazing soup you’ve ever tasted in your life?” he asked.

Well. That certainly was a choice. Before he could make his decision, he saw Hunk heavily shaking his head atop of Lance’s. Coran’s eyebrows wandered up but he understood the signal.

“The soup does sound amazing but I think it’s going to be a fun experience to cook with you two! Besides we won’t know whether we’ll fail until we try, right?” 

Lance groaned but straightened himself out again. “Alright, time to face the music, I guess,” he grumbled.

What music? They were going cooking. Coran decided not to say anything though, he had already learned that humans these days were a little odd. Not bad, definitely not bad, he thought as he watched Lance juggling with carrots, but odd.

He decided that he liked them.

 

* * *

 

“What are we doing out here?” Keith asked Lance as he looked around the empty courtyard. It was kind of cold and Lance had worn at least three jackets to compromise for the temperature but Keith didn’t seem to bothered by it. The perks of being a Galra, he supposed. 

“We’re going on a date,” Lance replied. He rubbed his hands together and blew against them, hoping to warm them up a little. Keith noticed and offered his hand and Lance gratefully took it. He had to be careful with the claws but his hands were nice and warm so it was totally worth it.

“It’s the middle of the night. And it’s cold,” Keith pointed out. Lance shrugged.

“Yeah, but sacrifices have to be made.”  


“You’re freezing.”  


“See how much I love you.” Keith laughed and began to massage Lance’s hands. They had to walk a little awkwardly since they didn’t want to let go but they made it work somehow. They always did.

Finally they reached the spot Lance had picked out for them. He had carried a bunch of blankets there earlier that day so that it wouldn’t get uncomfortable lying on the ground. Or well, sitting up against a stone because there was literally no way Lance would accept anything but Keith’s arms around him. Blankets only got you so far, after all.

“Help me set it up? Put this one on the ground,” Lance said and handed Keith one of the thicker blankets. Keith did so without complaint, spreading it out evenly in front of the stone. He smiled at how careful he was with his claws, always double checking that he hadn’t made any tears in the fabric. 

“What?” Keith asked. Realizing that he had been staring, Lance flushed a little and picked one of the other blankets to set it aside. That one would be the one he would put around them.

“Nothing. Thanks for helping out.”

“No problem.” Lance could hear the smile in Keith’s voice and started smiling himself. He took the all the other blankets and pushed them against the stone, holding them up and patting against them. 

“Here you go, your majesty. A throne just for you. Make yourself comfortable,” he said with a light bow and suppressed a shiver. Keith raised an eyebrow at him but sat down with his back against the blankets. Satisfied, Lance reached out to take the blanket he had set aside earlier but got yanked into Keith’s lap instead. He let out an undignified noise.

“Gods! Keith! A little warning next time?!” Keith laughed and drew his legs up, folding himself around Lance. He couldn’t quite suppress the shiver this time and allowed Keith to take the blanket from his hands and tuck it around them.

“Alright, are you now going to tell me what we’re doing here?”

“Shhh, let me warm up first,” Lance mumbled and snuggled closer to Keith. Keith slowly started moving his arms up and down, creating friction to keep him warm. He smiled and let his head drop backwards.

Hair in his nose.

Lance sneezed and turned his head, ignoring Keith’s laughter. That asshole had no right to laugh. It was all his fault, he should cut his hair shorter. Now even his Galra hair had reached the length of his human hair. 

Except he kind of liked it like this. Ah, the conflict. 

Sighing, Lance turned his head towards Keith again, careful of stray hairs this time. Keith was smiling down at him, his bright yellow eyes glowing in the dark. Lance returned his smile and craned his head a little to peck him on the lips.

“Okay, I’m good now. Very comfy, you’re a nice heater. 10/10, would use again,” he joked. Keith’s smile deepened and Lance grinned. “I mean it!”

“Thanks. You make a nice, cuddly pillow too,” Keith replied. Lance laughed and straightened his head, his neck was starting to hurt. Damn it. At least Keith was still all around him. 

“So… are you finally gonna tell me what we’re doing here?”

“Hm, I dunno. I could make you beg for it,” Lance mused. Keith snorted.

“Like I made you yesterday?”

There was a beat of silence, then Lance burst out laughing. “You - oh my god, _Keith_ , I'm supposed to be the dirty one here!” 

“I guess you're rubbing off on me,” Keith joked. Still snickering a little, Lance nuzzled more into him.

“Amazing. At this rate we'll actually be able to hold conversations that won't end in you being confused.” 

“I'm not always confused.”

“Just most of the time.” 

“Not true! Your humor is just very weird-” 

Lance laughed again, cutting Keith's protests off.  “Well, one thing's for sure, this totally ruined the atmosphere. Rule number one about making jokes: learn to read the mood before making one.” 

“You are not telling me what we are actually doing, so how am I supposed to know what’s appropriate and what isn’t?” Keith still sounded a little indignant, so Lance twisted around pecked his nose.

“Fine, I'll tell you. We’re stargazing. Because you like sparkly and glowy things and I’m not sure how we didn’t do this earlier. Happy now?” 

The way Keith's face lit up told Lance that yes, he was definitely happy now. “Stargazing? Alright. Do you know anything about the stars?”

“Not really,” Lance admitted. He had always been more occupied with the ocean than the sky. It wasn’t that the sky wasn’t nice but he didn’t feel drawn to it the same way he did towards the water.

Keith shifted and pulled an arm out of their blanket cocoon. “Well, it’s good then that I do. See those stars over there? They form Orion,” Keith said as he pointed towards an assortment of brighter stars. Lance didn’t really know what he was supposed to do with that information but smiled an nodded anyways. It seemed as if Keith was interested in the stars and he always listened to Lance ramble on about magic, so he could totally shut up and listen to him for a change. Besides, Keith had a nice voice. It made him really happy to listen to it.

Lance’s smile deepened a little and he snuggled closer.

 

* * *

 

Looking out of the window, Allura realized that it was spring already. Spring. She had had her country back for almost two years now. Trees were beginning to grow leaves again and the courtyard finally had regained some color. The Galra hadn’t cared about growing plants of any sort and it had been quite a lot of work to make some grow there again. 

Wait. Flowers?

A little giddy she got onto her feet. She had spoken to Coran about planting Jareya flowers, flowers that she hadn’t seen anywhere in Altea so far. It looked wrong, Altea was supposed to be full of Jareya flowers. She had had almost given up on them when Coran had approached her one day last fall and told her about having been able to find some at the far outskirts of the forest. Back then she had been elated and had instructed him to bring them here.

And now it was spring. It was time for them to bloom.

Allura rushed out of her quarters, ignoring the startled noises of her two self-declared human bodyguards - really, she had no need for them anymore, the country was peaceful now - and quickly made her way towards the stairwell. She was halfway out of the castle when Coran crossed her path.

“Coran! Are you free right now?”  


Coran looked up, obviously startled at having been addressed. He had looked deep in thought but his expression lit up when he saw her approaching. “Princess! I meant, queen! Sure I am, what can I do for you?”

“Do you know whether the Jareya flowers managed to bloom?” she asked. She tried not to sound too hopeful but she was pretty sure she failed on that. They were home and she had been longing for a piece of home for two years now. 

“Oh! It’s around time now, isn’t it? I actually haven’t checked on them yet, should we go take a look?”

“Yes!” And, okay, that might have come out a little too excited but she didn’t care much. Jareya flowers. Back in Altea. _Home_.

Coran smiled at her and waved her towards one of the smaller exits. She wasn’t quite sure where he had planted them so she was more than willing to follow. It saved her a lot of time.

“I am not entirely confident that they managed to grow well. The soil has gotten pretty bad over the years. Keith, bless that young man, helped me to carry fresh earth from the forest but I cannot guarantee anything.” Allura nodded in understanding and tried to tone her excitement down for a little. It wouldn’t do them any good if she got to disappointed later on.

They reached a door and Coran hurried to open it for her, looking at her with an mischievous glint in the eyes. “But I also cannot say for sure that we failed so no crushing our hopes yet!”

Allura could feel a bright grin stretching over her face and she nodded. “Right.” Maybe, maybe the flowers would be there once she stepped outside. Taking a deep breath, she left the castle.

They were in a part of the courtyard that was a little more private than the rest. There were bushes to separate and hide it from plain view and there as a tiny pond where she had performed water spells with Lance before they had moved on to elements that were more difficult to him. There were also a few flower boxes - and that’s when she saw them.

Jareya flowers. Red and in full bloom, taking up every free space in the soil.

Allura laughed and got onto her knees, almost not believing what she was seeing. Jareya flowers. They had Jareya flowers. And they were healthy and alive.

She brushed her hands over them, feeling the texture underneath her fingers. Smooth and soft. When she was kneeling the way she was right now, she could even smell them without getting closer. It was all so achingly familiar that she could feel tears prickling at her eyes.

“Coran. Coran, are you seeing this?” she whispered.

“Yes, my queen. We are home.”

 

* * *

 

Keith squinted at the drawing in the mud. It was a person, he supposed. Maybe. Possibly. The question was: who could it be?

“Um… your mom?” he suggested. Zoe laughed and shook her head. Well, at least she wasn’t disappointed in him.

“No! Mom has short hair. I drew long hair,” she clarified, tapping her stick next to the arms of the person. Except that they weren’t arms, apparently. It was all hair.

“Oh. Right. Elena then,” he concluded. Zoe beamed and squealed in delight. 

“Yes! Yes, it’s Elena!”  


“You draw quite good,” Keith said. He couldn’t help his frown though. “Where are her arms?”

“Here,” Zoe answered. She pointed at the hair again and Keith shrugged. Maybe they were hidden by her hair, who knew. Not him. For an almost four years old child Zoe was really good at talking but kind of awful at drawing.

Then again… maybe all almost four years old children were awful at drawing. Keith wouldn’t know, he didn’t know that many children. 

Suddenly Zoe dropped her stick and looked towards the castle. “Lance is back!”

Keith raised his eyebrows and looked towards the entrance. There was no sign of Lance anywhere. 

“I don’t think he’s back yet. He currently has his weekly magic lesson with Allura, they take a lot more time than-”

“Lance is back,” Zoe insisted. Keith heaved a sigh and crouched down. He didn’t understand why Lance had accepted to babysit her for today when he wouldn’t even be there for over three hours. He knew how bad Keith was with children.

“Listen, Zoe. I don’t think he will be back already. He barely left half an hour ago, there is still a long time-”

“No. Lance is back,” she stated and stuck her bottom lip out. Keith almost snapped at her but held himself back. She was just a child, she didn’t know about this kind of stuff. Her concept of time was different from his.

“I know you miss him but he won’t be back for-”

“He is coming here,” Zoe said and stomped at the ground. “Lance is coming here right now.”

Alright. Maybe it was time to play along. She was quite a handful when she got angry and Keith didn’t want to deal with that.

“Okay. Why do you think that?” he asked and handed her the stick again. She took it but didn’t make any attempt to start drawing again.

“Because I can hear him. He is coming here.”

Keith couldn’t help the way his eyebrows wandered up his forehead. “You can… hear him?” 

Zoe nodded decisively. “Yeah. He is coming here. He is happy, he-” She wrinkled her nose. “He is talking about kissing you.”

A little flaggerbasted Keith kept staring at her. “Why would you say that?” he finally asked after some time. There was no way that she could hear Lance from… wherever he currently was with Allura. Even in his Galran form he couldn’t hear what was going on inside of the castle when he was in the courtyard. 

“Because it’s the truth,” Zoe said. She stared at him for a few seconds, then her shoulders suddenly dropped. “You don’t believe me.”

“Uh - no, no, I totally do! It’s- uh, it’s amazing that you can hear Lance from here. What else is he saying?” Zoe wasn’t even getting angry at him. This was bad news, if she started crying both Lance and Alya would kill him. Oh, and Tristan. And everyone else from Lance’s family. Because for some reason everyone besides him was really good with children.

“Doesn’t matter. No one ever believes me,” she complained and kicked the dirt. It made some mud fly against his pants and he could almost hear Alya’s angry voice, telling him off for letting her daughter’s shoes get this dirty. He swallowed and pushed Zoe a little towards the door.

“No, I believe you. Promise. What else is Lance saying?”

She eyed him a little curiously but followed along. “He is not talking anymore. He is singing,” she informed him. Keith hummed and kept pushing her until they reached stone to stand on. Maybe it was time to take her back into the common area.

“What is he singing?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know the song,” Zoe said. She allowed him to put her stick aside and gather her up in her arms, carrying her towards the entrance. Then she suddenly put her left hand to her ear. “He is coming outside.”

“Tell him to go to the common room instead,” Keith answered. It got him a scandalized look and a dirty hand to the cheek.

“I can’t do that!”

“Why?”

“Because… I don’t know how to carry my voice. I can just make louder,” she explained awkwardly. Keith huffed out a laugh and went to open the door. Zoe immediately started struggling though, so he elected to stand outside for a few more minutes. Maybe if Lance still didn’t show up she would let him enter the castle again.

“Why don’t you make your voice louder then?” he asked. Her face took on a pained expression.

“Mom doesn’t like that. She tells me to stop screaming. But I am not screaming, I am just making it louder!”

Keith nodded along as if he had a clue what she was talking about. “I understand.”  


“It’s so unfair!”

“Yeah, it is.”  


“I just want her to understand me when I am away but then she is angry because I am screaming. I am not screaming. But I don’t know how to carry my voice.” Keith kept nodding. As long as he nodded she would- “You don’t understand,” she said unhappily.

“Uh. No, I do-”

“You don’t. No one understands,” Zoe said. She was visibly upset and Keith didn’t know what to do about it. 

“I, uh, don’t really understand the part about carrying your voice. It’s okay though. You can keep talking about Lance, I understand that part. Is he still singing?”

Zoe quieted for a moment, then she shook her head. “He is talking to someone. I don’t know who. I know the voice but I don’t know who.”

“Okay. Cool. What… what are they talking about?”

“You,” she replied easily. Keith could feel a blush creeping up his face.

“Uh. That’s - that’s cool.” He was kind of afraid of what Zoe thought Lance would say about him. Topic change. “So you can hear them because you make their voices louder?”

“Yes.” She nodded her head firmly to underline her point. Keith nodded along.

“Cool. But you only make them louder for you? Can you make them louder for me too?”

For a moment Zoe looked at him as if he was insane. Then, slowly, a look of surprise overtook her childish features. 

“I don’t know?”

“Well, you can try,” Keith suggested. He wasn’t quite sure yet whether he should play along with hearing them but maybe it distracted her enough to allow him to carry her inside.

He almost dropped her when he suddenly heard Lance’s and Shiro’s voices as if they were right in front of him.

_“He still sometimes has some problems with her but he’s getting better.”  
_

_“That’s good to hear. I was kind of worried after the first time, he wouldn’t stop complaining about babysitting and how annoying it was.”  
_

Lance laughed. _“Yeah, same here. He is totally fond of her though, so it’s no big deal. He’ll get used to her eventually. That reminds me, I should really get going now before he starts crying or something.”  
_

_“Keith? Cry?”_

_“Oh, you have no idea. Keith cries about everything. I guess he hid it from you because he wanted you to think that he is grown up now or something but he totally cries. I remember that one time he started crying because he thought Princess’ five marks had gone down to four.”_

Keith let out an indignant noise. “I didn’t cry! Lance, what the hell! That was all you!”

All of a sudden, the voices dropped away again. He turned his head just in time to see Zoe’s eyes fade back from glowing violet to dark brown. She was beaming though, her hands pressed together in delight. “It worked!”

Keith could only stare.

And stare some more.

“Keith?” She poked his cheek and he blinked a little.

Zoe was a magician.

What the fuck.

“Hey, uh, do you know where Lance is? We have to meet him fast.” She laughed and nodded, her dirty hands grabbing for his hair. 

“Does that mean you believe me?”

“Oh, I believe you alright. That was awesome,” Keith answered. He still felt half numb from surprise and - he had to tell Lance, now.

Lance wasn’t alone anymore.

“Yes! Will you tell mom that I am not screaming? I don’t want her to be angry when I am not screaming.”  


“I will, I will. Promise. But first we have to get to Lance.”

Zoe laughed and nodded and pointed at the door.

 

* * *

 

Lance stared at the floating orb of water before him, smiling at how beautiful it looked in the setting sun. They were back at the beach for a short vacation and they had gone diving again, resulting in Keith collecting shells. No matter how often they did it, Keith _always_ ended up collecting shells. It was kind of adorable, really.

“Remember the first time we did this?” Lance grinned happily. He looked down at their intwined hands, admiring the contrast between their skin colors. They could easily hold hands now. Everything was so much easier now than it had been back then.

Keith snorted. “How could I forget? It was the day you confessed to me. Or, well, admitted that you had ‘a thing’ for me. Not very romantic.”  


“It was also the day you called my very much heartfelt apology 'gay' so of course I was a little picky about my words!” Lance complained. After all these years he still remembered it clearly. He snuck a glance at Keith’s face and was pleased to find that he too was looking down at their hands. So much had happened since then but memories were a powerful thing. Lance would forever remember it as the day Keith had first opened up to him.

“I guess I’ll give you that. It was kind of a dick thing to say. Sorry.”

Lance threw his head back and laughed. Keith sounded entirely unapologetic. “A little late, aren’t you?”

“Better late than never,” Keith quipped back. Lance shook his head fondly and began swinging their hands.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Says you.”  


“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Nothing.” A soft smile played around Keith’s lips and Lance could feel his own expression matching it. It really wasn’t fair. They had been together for four years now and Keith’s smile still had that same stupid effect on him it had had at the very beginning. He wanted to protect it and never let it fade. It was… it was beautiful. _Keith_ was beautiful.

Turning his head towards the front again, Lance swallowed. There was something about this part of the beach at sunset, he thought. Something that made him feel all sappy and in love. The atmosphere was just all… perfect and stuff. Peaceful. Romantic. As if nothing else mattered. As if nothing else even existed. It was what had made him first confess his feelings and now urged him to do it all over again.

Well, it wasn’t as if he had anything to lose, had he? They were already together.

A deep, genuine smile made its way onto Lance’s face. He still couldn’t believe how he had gotten this lucky, how Keith had stayed by his side for all this time.

“I love you,” he told him earnestly and squeezed his hand. He heard a soft laugh and got a squeeze back.

“That’s good to hear. Reassuring, kind of.”

That phrase made Lance raise an eyebrow and glance over to Keith. Keith was looking at the sand, watching their shadows walking together, as a team, hand in hand. His smile wasn’t as pronounced as it had been moments ago but something in the way his eyes twinkled told Lance that he wasn’t any less happy now.

“Reassuring?” Lance asked. Keith turned his head to look at him and Lance’s breath got caught in his throat. The light of the setting sun reflected on Keith's eyes and played with his hair. It made him seem more beautiful than ever.

“Yeah, reassuring. I was kinda worried whether I’d be able to go through with it.”  


“Go through with it?” Lance shook himself out of his trance. “Go through with what?”

Keith grinned and lifted his left hand, transforming it into his Galran appearance. He had worked long and hard to control his transformation like this but it was totally worth it. He was now able to change only his eyes or ears, something that had come in handy when they were searching for something in the middle of the night. Lance was proud of him with every fibre of his being.

Then Keith reached into his underwear and Lance’s eyebrows flew up.

“Uhm. _Keith?!”_

“Shut up. This is not what it looks like,” Keith grunted. Lance’s eyebrows wandered even higher, if possible.

“Then tell me what it looks like. Because the only thing I can currently think of is that you really want to get rid of your dick.”

Keith laughed softly and twisted his hand, resulting in a tearing noise. Lance flinched a little. 

“Okay, so, if you hated that underwear we could have totally gotten you another one, no need to destroy it-”

“Please just shut up,” Keith said exasperatedly. Lance complied, if only because he didn’t know what else to do. What _did_ you do if your boyfriend started destroying his underwear at the beach after he said that your love confession was reassuring? Was this Keith exploring his exhibitionistic side?

But then Keith pulled his hand back, transforming it into human skin again in the process. There was a tiny bit of fabric peeking out between his fingers, a different color than his underwear. White, not black. Lance watched Keith shift it around a little and let it fly away.

“Uh…” he began, not sure what to make of the situation. So Keith didn’t destroy his underwear after all. He had just destroyed some kind of secret-pocket-thingy attached to it. Who kept secret pockets in their underwear? What the actual fuck, Keith?!

Keith sent him a bright smile and let go of his hand. Lance kept watching him uncertainly, fidgeting with his newly freed fingers a little. What was Keith doing? How come that despite his confident grin he radiated some kind of nervous energy that put Lance on edge, too?

And then Keith dropped onto his knee and held his hand out.

His hand, that held a tiny, silver ring.

He couldn’t breathe.

“Lance. Will you marry me?”

_Those four words._

Keith had never been a man of many words, Lance should have known that he wouldn’t have prepared a long speech. It didn’t leave him any room to recover, didn’t allow him to gather his thoughts together. All he could feel was shock and surprise and _happiness_ and there was blood rushing in his ears and he wasn’t sure how to react- what should he do- what could he do- he-

Lance extended one trembling hand to touch the ring. It was still a little wet from the water and _oh_ , that’s why Keith had needed the secret pocket. He had known that they would go diving today. And he had known that they would walk down the same path they had had that day when they had first gotten together.

“Oh my god,” he whispered hoarsely. His wide eyes went from the ring to Keith’s face. The smile there had transformed from something nervous but sincere to something nervous and scared... and Lance couldn’t have that.

His right hand closed over Keith’s left and he dropped onto his knees, pulling him into a tight hug. It was an awkward position but he couldn't care any less. “Yes. Oh my fucking god. _Yes_. Yes, what the fuck. Fucking fuck, Keith, I don’t - I didn’t expect this - _yes!_ Fucking yes, Keith, _of course_ I do! Yes! I can’t-”

Finally Keith let out a happy laugh, carefully twisting their hands to let the ring drop entirely into Lance’s hand. He then wrapped both of his arms around Lance’s back, pulling him even closer. Lance clung to him tightly, still staring disbelievingly at his right fist.

Keith had proposed to him.

_Keith_ had _proposed_. To _him_.

Lance didn’t know how to handle the sudden rush of happiness that flooded through him. His fingers dug into Keith’s shoulder and _ohmygod_ they were _fiancés_ now, this was his _fiancé_ he was hugging-

“Oh my god! Keith! What the fuck!” he screamed at the air in front of him. He could feel Keith shaking with laughter and his cheeks were already starting to hurt from the huge smile he wore. They were _engaged_. They were going to get _married_ and they would spent the entirety of their lives together. Forever. Keith wanted to stay by his side forever. Lance had already promised him to stick with him, to never leave him, over and over again but this was something else entirely. This was proof. 

Tears were beginning to obscure his vision and Lance hid his face in Keith’s neck. That - that fucking asshole had just _proposed_ to him and now he was _crying_ and he didn’t know what to _do_ \- but it didn’t matter because Keith loved him and was here with him and wanted to marry him.

Marriage.

Wow.

Incredulous laughter bubbled out of him, happy and unrestrained. He couldn’t help it, he was just so happy it almost hurt. Was that a thing? Could you die from happiness? If so Lance couldn’t be far from the end anymore.

Keith wanted to marry him. Keith. Marry him.

Lance let go of Keith to hold him at arm’s length. He could see his fiancé raising his eyebrows at his tears and he quickly wiped them away. Oh my god, he was still grinning. He didn’t know how to _stop_ grinning. Maybe he would be stuck looking like this forever.

Well, if Keith would wear his matching grin forever too, they would be all set.

“I fucking love you, you asshole!” he screamed at him and shook him a little. Keith laughed, letting himself be shaken before he grabbed Lance’s cheeks and squished them together. He was still grinning, it had to look ridiculous, but Keith was undeterred. His grin didn’t speak from anything but pure and unfiltered happiness and Lance couldn’t handle it. This idiot was his fiancé now. They were going to get married-

Keith pulled him closer until their foreheads touched. Lance let him do whatever he wanted, he wasn’t really capable of doing anything right now.

“I love you too, you big idiot,” Keith whispered at him and pressed their mouths together. Lance willingly returned the kiss, even if it wasn’t that much of a kiss with both of their lips still being stretched into huge grins. It wasn’t as if he could help it, just-

They were going to get married. They would be husband and husband. He would wake up next to Keith for every single day for the rest of his life. Their life. He would get to hug and kiss him for as long as he wanted to, whenever he wanted to. They could go on expeditions and parties and family meetings - _together_. All of that were things that they had done before already but for some reason it felt different now. It wasn't as if he had suddenly had a revelation about their relationship, it was more like the feeling he got when Keith dragged him towards a new adventure, their hands firmly clasped together.

And that's what it was, Lance realized. It was the promise of thousands of new adventures with Keith by his side.

He wasn’t sure how long they stayed like this until he had calmed down enough to lean away again. Keith’s eyes were shining and the setting sun still reflected in them, making him seem almost magical. Unreal. Too good to be true. Lance reached out to brush some hair out of his face, transforming Keith’s grin into something much softer. His heart gave a painful squeeze, he loved this man to death.

“Thank you,” he said. He was surprised at his own words, wasn’t sure where they had come from. He hadn’t meant to say them but now that he had, he realized that every word rang true. He wanted to thank Keith for talking to him, for trusting him, for laughing with him, for existing with him. For wanting to stay by his side forever, through countless new adventures that were yet to come. For everything.

“Thank _you_ ,” Keith replied. And Lance wasn’t sure what Keith could possibly be thanking him for but he saw it reflected in his eyes - all the same feelings that he was trying to convey, too. He loved Keith and Keith loved him and it couldn’t be more perfect that way.

“God. Gods, Keith, I love you way too much, it's unfair,” Lance groaned pathetically and flopped forward. Keith laughed, wrapping an arm around him and pulling his closed fist with the ring between them. Lance opened and turned it a little, admiring the way the light danced on it. It was beautiful.

“Shut it, Lance. You have no idea about how I feel.” Keith’s hand grabbed for the ring and he carefully put it onto Lance’s finger. Lance sat back up and turned his hand, playing some more with the reflecting light and committing the image to memory. Keith, on his knees in the sand, smiling and happy, eyes sparkling. Sparkling just as much as the silver ring on his tanned skin.

“Are we gonna make this into a competition? Because let me tell you, you’re not gonna win this one.”  


“I wasn’t trying to make it into a competition. I was just trying to tell you that you have no right to complain when I am just as bad as you.” 

Lance laughed and pressed a short kiss against Keith’s nose, happy when he got one against the side of his head in return. “I’ll complain all I want, asshole. This much love can’t be healthy. You’re gonna kill me.”

“Deal with it,” Keith replied easily. Lance laughed again before straightening himself out, taking in the tender look on Keith’s face. Keith was happy, content. At peace. His soft smile spoke from love and trust and Lance knew that he wasn’t looking much different. 

“I don’t think I can.”

“Well, that makes two of us. At least we are not alone with this.” And Lance laughed, short and sharp. No, no they were not alone. Not now, not ever. They were a team of two and it felt as if it had always been supposed to be this way. They would never be alone again. Because now they were _together_. For as long as they wanted.

Forever it was, then.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ........and then Lance tried to get up and started complaining about how his knees hurt from kneeling on the sand for too long and all the romance is gone. He is happy though. It's fine. I'm not even sorry for the super cliché ending, I needed these idiots to marry...
> 
> That's it, now! This huge story is over, thank you for everyone that read this far! I really, seriously appreciate it and I hope it didn't disappoint^^ Any kind of feedback is appreciated (in fact pls talk to me I'll love you forever), I'm always looking for more klance friends. I promise, I'm a nice person :D

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, it means a lot, really! :D
> 
> Come talk to me on  
> \- [tumblr](http://keiths-stupid-mullet.tumblr.com/) (keiths-stupid-mullet)  
> ooor  
> \- [twitter](https://twitter.com/ka_sape) (ka_sape) (hah it's so empty, i just made that account...)


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